


not long now

by Lethildiren



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Frisk and Chara are (were?) not very happy kids, Gaster means well, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Multi, Narra!Chara, Non-Binary Frisk and Chara, Papyrus is conflicted, Sans Remembers Resets, Timeline Shenanigans are afoot, Undyne is kind of a badass, Wingdings is technically a language?, asriel is alive, but that's also probably actually a Very Bad Thing, dramatic flashback sequences caused by tiny blue flowers, kind of, nothing ever goes to plan with these people
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-17
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-08-31 10:48:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8575420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lethildiren/pseuds/Lethildiren
Summary: Everything goes back, and yet it doesn’t. Sans awakens, many years after the Barrier has shattered, to find himself back in his bedroom in Snowdin-- but nothing is as it should be. The Ruins are empty of all life, and the Machine that Sans had spent so long trying to fix is now whole; on the other side of the Underground, as his family begins to crumble to dust, the Fallen Prince prepares for war... and, in the midst of the chaos, hidden in the shadows, the door that does not exist... begins to open.As the world begins to unravel around them and Frisk's adventures draw to a close, the three that refused to change are forced to confront their pasts and find the answer to the question that may end the world:Who is truly the one in control?





	1. I - Awakening

* * *

**_pain pain pain_ ** **_pain_ **

**_artificial sunlight streaming through stained glass and a b o n e inches away from his h e a d_ **

**_the stars are so much nicer up here than in the underground_ **

**_it’s not long now_ **

**_ the angel who has seen the surface will return  _ **

** Have you been studying, Sans? **

** heh. you know me,  dad **

**_a child’s hand in your own, bones and flesh and skin and bones and then it’s      g o n e_ **

**_do you think even the best person can change? _ **

**_ and the underground will go empty _ **

**_We cannot forgive Humanity this time._**

* * *

 

“SANS!”

* * *

 

**_i want to stay with you don’t make me leave_ **

**_that no matter how good you are, you can still… screw up? _ **

**_Every Human that falls into the Underground from now on_**

* * *

 

“SANS, WAKE UP!”

* * *

 

**_must die!_**

* * *

 

He awakens to the smell of burnt pasta and the faint whooshing of a tornado he hasn’t heard in decades. “nngh... what is it, pa--”

His eyesockets go as wide as they can. He recognizes those things! He knows where he is, he-- oh, _God, no,_ please let this be a dream-- he shuts his eyes as tightly as he can, hoping and praying that he’ll wake up to his bedroom, _on the Surface,_ like he was _supposed to be._ This _wasn’t supposed to happen anymore._ They had promised him-- they'd _both sworn_ they wouldn’t--

“SANS, NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR SLEEPING IN! THE PRINCE IS COMING TODAY, REMEMBER?!”

... _what?_

“alright, alright, i’m comin’, hang on! you just kinda caught me off _guard,_ is all!” he calls back, after a brief, bewildered moment. There is a brief pause, and then Papyrus continues--

“AARGH! SANS!! NO!!! DON’T START PUNNING, PLEASE! YOU KNOW HE HATES THAT!”

That last sentence confirms his suspicions - he _had_ heard Papyrus correctly. So the Prince was... alive, now?  “well... this is new,” he mutters, before stumbling out of bed and beginning to get dressed. The first thing that tells him something is wrong is that his jacket-- _his_ jacket, the only one he ever wore - is not in his wardrobe. It's nowhere to be seen, in fact.

He does see some pretty sweet lab coats, though. Some of them are white, with gold lining the sleeves and so on, and others… others are dark, _ darker than they should be, _ and his face immediately twists into a frown. He had never worn a black lab coat. He’d never so much as _owned_ one. Sure, sometimes he’d worn a normal one, when he was helping-- helping--

He sighs. When he was helping _Doctor Gaster_ with the CORE, of course. He still couldn’t remember the man’s name clearly, on the best of days.

But… this thing looked far, far more _Gaster_ than it did _Sans._ What on earth was it doing in his wardrobe? The only thing that gave him any hints as to why it was there... was the golden Delta Rune insignia proudly displayed on the front, glowing ever so faintly in the shadows. If it could, his jaw would probably drop a little.

He has absolutely no reason to have Gaster’s lab coat in his wardrobe.

He shrugs, eventually. “welp. at least i get to look cool,” he drawls, before pulling the coat on. The fabric is smooth, and cold to the touch, and doesn’t feel much like fabric at all; it brings back memories. Most of them are fond, but some… he shivers involuntarily at the thought.

“SANS, HURRY UP! IF YOU TAKE TOO LONG, YOU MIGHT JUST HAVE TO SKIP BREAKFAST!”

“like that’d be a big loss,” he mumbles. “on my way, just a second!”

He hurries downstairs to find, to his complete lack of surprise, that Papyrus still can't cook. He’s simultaneously relieved and _horrified,_ because now he most likely _has_ to eat it. He hasn't eaten true Papyrus-brand spaghetti since he before left the Underground-- but technically he never had, had he? Regardless, Pap had made _major_ improvements since then, and now--

Now that was all gone. He sighs. “sorry ‘bout that, pap. i was still waking up. so, prince asriel’s coming?” He asks. _ please tell me that it isn't someone else, that would be embarrassing. _ To his relief, Papyrus nods, before placing a massive bowl of pasta in front of him.

”OF COURSE! HE’S COMING TO INSPECT THE ROYAL GUARDS ASSIGNED TO SNOWDIN, AFTER ALL! NOW, I KNOW YOU’RE A SENTRY AND NOT A GUARD,” he continues, looking thoroughly pleased with himself, “BUT _I_ MOST CERTAINLY AM! THAT MEANS YOU’LL HAVE TO BE ON YOUR BEST BEHAVIOR!”

Sans chokes before the spaghetti is even in his mouth. _Papyrus_ was a _guard?_ “any particular reason for him to be here, or…?”

Papyrus’s expression turns deadpan. “SANS, I THOUGHT YOU KNEW THIS ALREADY. HE DOESN’T NEED ANY OTHER REASON! HE _IS_ IN CHARGE OF THE ROYAL GUARD, AFTER ALL! EVERYONE KNOWS THAT!” _ welp. that explains a lot.. i think. pap, you are never not gonna be useful for exposition. never change, bro. _

“I SEE YOU ARE WEARING YOUR BEST COAT TODAY! GOOD DECISION! I, MYSELF, AM ALREADY IN UNIFORM,” and Sans now notices that, indeed, Papyrus’s so-called _battle body_ has the Delta Rune engraved into it. Well.. that was cool. And rather weird. Now that he thinks about it, everything just feels... _off,_ in general...

...man, this was going to take some getting used to.

* * *

It takes him twenty minutes to wolf down the "spaghetti," and he and Papyrus (reluctantly) are off to Grillby’s almost immediately after. The Royal Guard roster seems to be unchanged, besides Papyrus; they all greet him as usual, and Grillby waves as he enters. Asriel is nowhere to be seen; he isn't sure if that's good or bad. 

“say, when’s the prince getting here, again? you made it sound like he was right down the street, when you got me up, and… i don’t see him anywhere.”

“OH, NOT LONG NOW-- JUST A COUPLE HOURS! I SIMPLY WANTED TO MAKE SURE YOU GOT UP _RIGHT THEN,_ BECAUSE OTHERWISE YOU MAY HAVE OVERSLEPT. RATHER DRASTICALLY.” Sans just winks.

“it's fine, pap. i’m not exactly _bone_ tired or anything.” Papyrus groans in dismay at that, but says nothing.

Things after that are boring, but... soon, he sees an opportunity. And he takes it.

* * *

 

Shortcuts are uncomfortable on the best of days. He's learned how to tune it out, however. For the most part. This time… _not so much._ The Void waits barely two seconds before ripping into him and hurling him out of the shortcut fast enough to crack his skull.

Mercifully, he just lands in the snow. Dying barely forty minutes into a run would be bad, but… _ fuck fuck fuck fuck ow what the fuck god _ **_damn_ ** _it_ **_ow._ **

...it still hurt.

He lies there, face down in the snow, for a few minutes. Then, he lets out a small groan and pushes himself up onto his knees. _ well. that was a mistake. _ There was no denying that… but _why?_ Pain like _that_ hadn't happened to him before, no matter how bad a run was… the only explanation he can think of is that something in this timeline messed with _the Void itself._ The thought… frightens him.

He eventually stumbles over to the Door, falling towards it with a sigh. It doesn't hurt when his head collides with the rock; it never did, for some reason. Probably magic. After a brief moment, he adjusts his position so that he is leaning against the door, before firmly knocking two times. “knock, knock.”

…”c’mon… _knock, knock!_ ” A bead of sweat forms on his forehead.  “lady? _hey!_ ”

But nobody came.

* * *

“SANS! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? YOU LOOK… NOT SO GOOD,” Papyrus observes as he approaches, a single bony brow raised. 

Sans just gives him a wide grin. “just tripped and got a facefull of snow. _snow_ thing to worry about.” Papyrus stares at him for a second, scanning his expression, then just looks down, shaking his head and muttering. _Muttering?_

“WELL, REGARDLESS! THE PRINCE SHOULD BE HERE IN A FEW MINUTES - HE JUST GOT DONE CHECKING ON GREATER DOG!” He sounds excited. Sans blinks, for a second, before nodding.

“alright. any chance i could grab some ketchup from grillbz’ before he gets here, or…?”

“NO, SANS! NO KETCHUP!” He’s actually genuinely disappointed at that, but he's careful not to show it. It was just ketchup, after all. It isn't like he's about to meet with the fucking _Prince,_ who’s supposed to be fucking _dead--_

“SANS? YOU LOOK UNCOMFORTABLE. YOU DON’T HAVE TO MEET THE PRINCE IF-- IF YOU AREN’T FEELING UP TO IT, YOU KNOW! I KNOW YOUR SHORTCUTS CAN MESS WITH YOU SOMETIMES!” Sans blinks. _ you do? _

“nah, it’s fine,” he says, waving a hand in dismissal. “i’ll be fine.”

They spend the next few minutes in silence. Papyrus can _tell_ something is wrong, that much is clear, but Sans can’t figure out much more than that. He nearly sticks his hands in his pockets, absentmindedly, before realizing-- _ right, this doesn’t have pockets. uh... i’m _ **_really_ ** _ gonna have to go looking for my jacket eventually, huh? _

He can hear things in the distance. People talking, the occasional noise of footsteps in the snow, the rushing water of the river not ten feet away from them. It’s… relaxing. It’s calm. Too calm. He hasn’t relaxed like this in a long time-- because he _can’t._ If something takes him off-guard--

“Ah… here we are. Howdy, Papyrus. Sans.”

The voice is soft and smooth and shouldn’t be frightening at all, but the sheer unexpectedness of it makes him flinch anyway. In contrast, Papyrus’s face lights up at the sudden noise, and he immediately rushes forwards. “HELLO, PRINCE ASRIEL! HOW HAS YOUR INSPECTION GONE SO FAR?”

Sans takes a deep breath and turns to face the Prince, and

 _wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong_ **_wrong_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're off to a bit of a slow start, aren't we?...
> 
> Don't worry. _Don't worry._ I have _lots_ planned for this.


	2. II - Dreemurr

_...Papyrus’s face lights up at the sudden noise, and he immediately rushes forwards. “HELLO, PRINCE ASRIEL! HOW HAS YOUR INSPECTION GONE SO FAR?” _

_Sans takes a deep breath and turns to face the Prince, and_

_wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong_ **_wrong_ **

* * *

gives him a wide grin. “sup?”

Asriel Dreemurr returns his smile, his gleaming red eyes twinkling in the light. Sans can see something burning in them-- something powerful, like his parents. Or… something _dangerous._ It puts him on edge. There's something else about his face, too-- there are marks, two long black lines beginning just under his eyes, stretching down his neck and out of sight. He isn’t sure what that’s about, but it seems… familiar.

Sans has never met the Prince before (Flowey doesn't, didn't, _will never_ count, as far as he's concerned) - only heard the stories. They’d said he took after his mother more than his father, and now he can see why they would say that. He's clearly growing up to resemble Toriel more than Asgore; he is tall - about as tall as Papyrus, actually - and rather skinny, like her, not wide and muscular like Asgore, and his silver (not golden) hair blends in with his fur so well he can hardly tell that it's there at all. He’s wearing similar robes, as well (if rather ragged ones), and--

_ and he recognizes that locket _

But… something’s off.

Looking closer, he can see the true source of his discomfort: there are scars. All over him. Beneath the fur, there are hundreds upon hundreds of marks, some long and jagged, some small and precise, some old and faded and others very, very _new._ He almost looks like some sort of corpse, with the decaying robe and the scars and those marks on his face. And… something about those eyes…

He shrugs, more to himself than anything. Asriel is talking to Papyrus, right now-- that gives him time to recover from his initial unease. “So,” Asriel says, turning to him ( _okay, scratch that, i guess_ ) “Sans. Your sentry duties have been rather uneventful, as well. Right? None of the Guardsmen have seen anything, so far; the Dogs have smelt nothing, Undyne’s station in Waterfall remains, in her words, ‘boring as shit,’ and RG01 and RG02..” He scowls, briefly. “...are too caught up in their own relationship to notice anything strange passing by, I’ll admit, but it doesn’t matter too much; Mettaton can certainly handle anything _they_ miss. I intend to talk to them about that soon, anyway,” he mutters. Sans’s brow twitches upwards for a moment at the mention of Mettaton, before he nods.

“so far, yeah.. i--” He begins another sentence, but hesitates. _stupid, stupid, stupid, **stupid--**_ Asriel does _not_ miss it, unfortunately, and, faced with the Boss Monster's unrelenting stare, he finds himself forced to continue.  “i thought i saw something leave the ruins a couple hours ago, but there’s no sign of anybody. it’s kinda _ dooring."_ He expects the Prince to at least _smile,_ but…

...he doesn’t. His eyes narrow almost imperceptibly, before he simply... nods. “I see. Perhaps I should look through them, myself…” he sighs. “Well, thank you for informing me.” Sans returns the nod, in response, and waits for him to continue speaking. To him, or Papyrus; it doesn't matter.

Papyrus is staring at him over Asriel’s shoulder, he can see. He isn’t sure if that look means _‘I KNOW YOU’RE LYING AND I WANT TO KNOW WHY,’_ or _‘WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THIS BEFORE NOW?’_ Asriel doesn’t notice, however. Or, he doesn’t seem to. He just turns sharply on his heel, and resumes talking to Papyrus for a few more moments. "Now, as for your training..." Sans lets out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. Well… that was nearly a disaster.

Actually, it kind of was, all things considered, but he could fix that with ease. All he has to do, now, is figure out what’s going on.

Asriel departs a few minutes later, and Sans isn’t sure if he used a Shortcut or something else entirely, because one moment he’s there and one moment he _isn’t._ Papyrus doesn’t seem too surprised, though, and so he’ll just take it at face value for now.  "so, uh... he seemed kinda down today. i can't remember-- is that normal, or...?" For a moment, Papyrus's expression turns solemn, and he shakes his head.

"NO, SADLY. IT'S NORMAL. HE USED TO BE MUCH MORE LIKE ME, I HEAR! THEN..."

"then chara died?" Sans ventures, a single bony brow raised. Papyrus simply nods.

"YES... IT WAS VERY SAD." There is a brief pause, and then his eyes widen comically and his expression turns accusatory, the previous grim topic forgotten. “WAIT, HANG ON! SANS! YOU NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT THE RUINS!! WAS THAT WHY YOU LOOKED SO DISORIENTATED?” He shrugs, and grins a little, despite himself. _complete 180. well done, pap._

“you caught me. yeah, it was.”

“WELL… TELL ME NEXT TIME, OKAY?” Sans just smiles and nods like always, and Papyrus nods too after a second. He isn’t entirely sure if he believes him, but it doesn’t matter.

Hopefully, there won’t _be_ a next time, anyway.

* * *

 

He isn’t sure what he expects when he goes down to his lab a few hours later. He intends to check for any signs of something tampering with the timeline; if Frisk (or Chara, or… he wasn’t going to count Gaster out of the equation here, no matter how unlikely it may be) had screwed something up, he would know.

But the world isn’t done surprising him, apparently. He steps down the stairs, turns the corner and gasps. The bottle of ketchup he had been sipping from every now and then slips out of his hand and clatters to the floor.

The Machine is fixed.

The controls are illegible but _intact,_ written in a hand he _knows so well_ but that he had clearly been incapable of reading before now-- he can see notes all over the place, pointless scribbling like _ "who uses hands as letters?" _ and _ "says something about timelines; timelines, meaning???" _

He stifles a laugh. Well, at least the damn thing was fixed, now. He’d spent so _long…_ and his attempts hadn’t really helped. Though, considering this entire _room_ was the one constant in the timelines - somehow - and, thus, he had always kept _adding on to it,_ instead of being forced to do the same things _over and over_ just to get anything done, it was always refreshing, at least.

In fact, it was one of the few, non-Papyrus-related things in his life that had kept him going, because he quite simply _didn’t know what the Machine did._ Maybe it could help him stop the Resets, or perhaps even bring Gaster back, or something. It had been a beacon of hope, back then. He still doesn’t know what it does, but… maybe he can figure it out now.

He takes a long, hard look at the controls. One of the switches off to the side is clearly labeled **ON** ; he pulls it, first, and the Machine does something he never thought he’d see: it _powers on._

The screen lights up, displaying hundreds upon hundreds of lines of code, all written in that same incomprehensible gibberish that he had come to recognize as Wingdings. **PHOTON READINGS POSITIVE: VOID IS STABLE (TIMELINES 002, 711 and 1379 CURRENTLY ACTIVE)**

His brow furrows. “timelines 002, 711 and… _ 1379? _ jesus, kid, you’ve been at this for a while, huh?” He takes a brief moment to read the rest of the readings out; the Machine had apparently been designed for monitoring the Multiverse as a whole, cataloguing every timeline generated by Frisk, Flowey or anyone else capable of Resetting. Apparently, the last timeline to be active was Timeline 1377; going by what it displays when he inspects it, it was definitely the one he was from. _ so... what was the 1378th? _

He puts that thought aside for now. He’ll figure that out when he meets Frisk; for now, he has to figure out what the others were… 1379 most likely referred to the one he was in now, but… hm. The others are too far back-- maybe he wasn’t alone, here? And… the first hundred (or so) timelines hadn’t been active in, according to the Machine, _millennia._ Well, _technically_ millennia, but still. What on Earth could have activated one of them now? Was it… was it Asriel?

That's fine; he has a way to figure it out, now - the options for 002 include something marked DISPLAY LOCATION. He selects it, after a moment, and the Machine locks up for a second. When it comes back, it reads… **LOCATION UNKNOWN; INTERFERENCE DETECTED. CONTACT DOCTOR GASTER IMMEDIATELY.** The Machine… _couldn’t find it?_

Well, _that_ can’t be good. He checks the other timeline-- 711. To his relief, it shows him something infinitely easier to find:

** ANOMALY DETECTED. SUBJECT LOCATED IN THE UNDERGROUND: TRUE. LOCATION: 54.14715425056864/-107.13111877441406 (THE RUINS) **

The Ruins.

_ bingo. time to pay tori a visit. _

* * *

 

He doesn’t take a Shortcut to the Ruins this time; that would be asking for trouble.. He just walks, instead; the road is long and winding, and he’s pretty sure Papyrus’s puzzles are different from how they usually are, but that’s fine. That’s the _least_ of his worries.

He has to get to Toriel before Asriel does. If he decides that yes, he _should_ go investigate the Ruins… she could be in danger. Frisk, too - or whichever Human they were on right now. He hopes it’s Frisk; they, of all people, would know what’s going on. They _had_ to. If they didn’t… well, they’re all probably screwed, aren’t they? He has to do this.

He reaches the Door soon enough; it’s untouched. There is no dust in the air, no footprints in the snow. A thought comes to his mind unbidden, at that, and makes him shiver. God, what if it was one of _those_ runs? That would be _bad._ It doesn’t seem like it, yet, but… he doesn’t know that for sure. It'll only become clear when he sees Frisk. Or... Chara.

Taking into account the fact that _he,_ himself, had basically just _gone to sleep_ and woke up to find that, suddenly, everything had been sent back to zero... it wasn't out of the question that _they_ had gone through that, too. Which could be... bad. If they came out of the Ruins covered in dust, and looking like they needed to _vent,_ well... that'd probably be why.

(He's pretty sure Frisk has a few problems, at this point.)

Whatever happens, if they turn out to be in the middle of a rage when he opens that door, he's keeping them the hell away from Papyrus, that much is certain.

He raises his hand-- and hesitates. What if he blew the door open as Frisk walked out? They wouldn’t be very happy if he killed them now, would they…? He lowers it, again, and then walks over and knocks on the door. “knock, knock?”

No one replies, and he nods. “i figured.” He holds out his hand--

A Gaster Blaster materializes in the air next to him. There is a brief pause, and then he snaps his fingers.

There is an explosion, and a burst of light, and the door blows open with a loud _crash._ He lets out a low whistle.  “that  _ might _ been overkill,” he comments, stepping inside the Ruins. He’d never been here before-- he’d always wound up waiting for Toriel to leave this place on her own (if she ever did, at least) instead of going to meet her himself. It was always easier that way. But...

It seems there's a first time for everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sans does a good enough job at translating the Wingdings gibberish for us that I think I don't have to. If you truly need to, though, click the "Hide Creator's Style" button up top.
> 
> The coordinates you'll see as a result are actually for a lake in the middle of Canada, by the way. Don't get any ideas.


	3. III - Fallen

“tori? kid?” He calls out, wandering down the dark, dusty hallway. The sight makes him paranoid, but close inspection reveals it to be - thankfully - normal dust, not Monster dust. At least, it seems like it is… _ whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down there. let’s not get ahead of ourselves there. _

His call echoes through the hallway. Something about this… feels familiar. He can’t put his finger on it, but--

“SANS!”

He nearly jumps a foot in the air at that-- but it’s _Frisk’s voice,_ and that meant he may as well have been jumping for joy anyway!  “hang on, kid! i’m coming!” He would take a Shortcut to the end of the hall, but not only was that risky, but he can’t see the end (which, considering his eyesight, is unnerving) and, well, he can’t take a Shortcut to a place he doesn’t remember. _ man, i should have come here before now… _

He’s so focused on finding Frisk that, when he finally reaches the end of the hall, he nearly stumbles and falls face-first into a flight of stairs. As it is, he merely slows down for a few seconds-- but it seems to have been enough, for the sounds of Frisk crying slowly echo down from the entrance to what surely must be Toriel’s house, and his heart skips a beat, before he starts climbing up the steps.

 _ stairs, _ he mentally groans. _ my mortal enemy. _ But he makes it up there, eventually, and the crying grows louder and louder and louder and--

Eventually, he stumbles into a warm, cozy room, with a table to the side and an armchair in front of a fireplace. Frisk is there, with their same garish blue-and-purple sweater and a bow in their hair; they’re sobbing profusely, with their hands over their face. The armchair lets off a strange aura as he approaches it, and-- _oh god--_ he _doesn’t want to look._

But he has to.

As he draws closer, he can see, quite clearly, a small mound of dust in the chair, and any and all of the hopes that he had had about this situation immediately go out the window. It's obviously fresh; even in the Ruins, the wind would likely scatter the ashes eventually, and so a mound like this had to be, at most, twenty or thirty minutes old. As it is, it is slowly trickling down off of the chair; most of the dust has actually seemingly already done so, piling around it. Some of it lands, or has landed, on Frisk’s knees-- some of it is in their hands, too, and from there it’s gotten in their hair. The sight brings back unpleasant memories, and makes him shiver involuntarily.

“...kid?” Frisk flinches, at that, before looking up at him. Their expression is… not a happy one, and he can feel his own standard, forced grin slowly drooping, as well.

After a moment, Frisk lunges forwards and buries their head in his shoulder. “I d-don’t know what h-happened, she-- she j-just-- she _wasn’t there when I woke up,_ and _neither was Flowey--_ everything was j-just so _e-empty,_ and then when I g-got here s-s-she was--”

“easy, kid. i think i know what happened. just... it’ll be okay, okay? we’ll figure out a way to get through this…” His words are half-hearted, and Frisk can tell. They just sob more.

He had expected many things to come of entering the Ruins on his own. Maybe to find Frisk there, a dusty knife in their hands and murder in their eyes, or to find Toriel alone, or maybe even to find that Asriel had already beaten him there and ruined everything. But… not _this._

They don’t say anything else for a while. He doesn’t, either. There isn’t anything _to_ say.

* * *

Eventually, Frisk calms down. It takes a very, very long time, but eventually they’ve settled down enough to be willing to continue out of the Ruins, and Sans accompanies them. “So… um… nice coat?”

He chuckles. “i had absolutely no clue i even owned this thing,  _ patella _ the truth. i just couldn’t find my jacket.  _ lab _ at me if you want, but it’s true.” Frisk giggles, at that.

Then he sighs. “look, kid, i know what happened to tori. you know the shtick around boss monsters, right? they don’t age past a certain point ‘til they have kids? yeah, about that... it seems like, this time, tori never lost hers.”

Their reaction is immediate. They stop moving and their eyes open wide - wider than he’s ever seen them, in fact - as, despite everything that had just happened, a grin spreads across their face. “Y-you mean-- _Azzy’s alive?!_ ” They spin around to look at him, and for a moment he swears he can see a glint of _red_ in their eyes. He tries to shrug it off, giving them a small smile.

“yup. it seems he backed out of the whole 'dying' thing at the last second, here. he sure looks like it, at least. now, that _should_ be good, but, uh... one problem; he’s grown up. and he’s not the nicest guy ever.” They blink, after a moment, and then their expression turns skeptical.

“What do you mean?”

“well…” he pauses, scratching the back of his skull. Mostly for effect. “he acted real stiff when i saw him. didn’t even react to my puns. now, unlike you, this is the first time i’ve met him, but-- well, i’m pretty sure, either tori and asgore didn’t raise that kid, or it’s not the asriel you remember.”

There is a long silence, and Frisk seems to be in a silent conversation with themself. ( _well, true enough, i guess,_ he thinks, with a slight chuckle.) Then, they let out a small gasp and go very pale. “I-- I know what’s going on,” they stammer, before abruptly turning and _bolting down the hallway._

“kid?! where you going?!”

“I NEED TO GET TO NEW HOME!" They yell back, sprinting out into the forest and out of sight. He lets out a frustrated groan ( _really, kid?_ ) before taking a single step forward into a shortcut--

and tumbling backwards as Frisk collides with them. “slow down, ki-- oof!” The two of them land in the snow, tangled together. A few seconds later, Sans shoves them off of him and sits up, groaning.

“...look. you do  _ not _ want to run into any of the guards here right now, alright? far as i can see, the prince is in charge of the guards. i dunno what undyne's up to, but... look. that means, if they see you, they’re gonna go straight to him. all things considered, that means right now they’re  _ asriel _ of a danger as they’ll get, so…  _ be careful, _ okay?” The moment he’s finished speaking, they climb back up to their feet, without even bothering to react to his pun, and begin to run again. Sans, however, is not easily beaten, and grabs them by the ankle. If puns don't succeed...

_ "LISTEN TO ME WHEN I TELL YOU TO STOP." _

...maybe a little force will.

Indeed, they’re so startled that they can’t react to him in time, and they slip and fall back out of sight into the snow. After a moment, they poke their head back out, staring at him in a mixture between confusion and fear. “look, i know you want to ‘fix everything.’ it’s just, i have  _ no clue _ what your plan is, and i don’t think you do either. i mean, 'i need to get to new home' is kinda vague, you know? so... we would be better off slowing down and not screwing everything up. alright?”

After a moment, they nod. “...sorry.”

“nah, it’s fine, kid. you’ve just got to be careful right now. even if  _ paps _ is the one that sees you, he’ll probably tell asriel about it, and from what little i know about that guy, he could probably give  _ me _ a run for my money. boss monsters are tough, you know?” He has to actively fight the urge to add something around the lines of _'even if you've killed all three of them a bunch of times before.'_ They seem to think it themself, regardless, and their expression grows slightly guilty.

“now…” he stands up and brushes off his coat. “c’mon, let’s go to my lab. it’s safe there." He holds out his hand. After a moment, Frisk takes it. He begins to move--

...and pauses. “ah. actually, i’m not sure if a long-distance shortcut would be a good idea right now-- the void doesn’t seem to like it. i say long-distance, ‘cause i stopped you earlier. which was... really stupid of me to try, actually, but... whatever, still. c’mon, i know an  _ actual _ shortcut,” he says, grinning a little wider. Frisk looks incredibly relieved, then incredibly dismayed, and then they’re walking again. They pass by Papyrus’s ‘gate’ - it’s just as ineffective as usual, go figure - and Sans’s sentry station, before he abruptly skids to a stop.

“i think i see pap. well, uh, that's one way to stick to the script... um-- conveniently-shaped lamp, go!” Frisk does as they’re told, darting behind the lamp. Where it came from (and why it exists) is beyond him. He thinks that, for a brief second, he can see something else standing behind it, but it vanishes as he turns to look at it.

Papyrus shows up, soon after. “SANS!” He calls out, his worried expression quickly vanishing as he catches sight of his brother. “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!”

“uh... sleeping?” He immediately realizes that that was the wrong thing to say, as Papyrus starts squinting at him.

“YOU DIDN’T HAVE ANY NIGHTMARES LAST NIGHT, DID YOU? YOU DON'T USUALLY SLEEP ON THE JOB...”

“i’m fine, bro. same as always. if anything, it’s probably because i was working myself--” “NO, SANS.” “--down to the  _ bone. _ " Papyrus lets out a frustrated noise.

“SANS, YOU-- YOU _BONEHEAD!_ YOU KNOW PRINCE ASRIEL WILL BE VERY, VERY ANGRY IF HE CATCHES YOU DOING THIS, DON’T YOU?”

“is he here right now?” Papyrus opens his mouth to speak, then spins around, as if to confirm what he was about to say. Sans stifles a chuckle at the sight, trying to ignore the discomfort the concept of _him actually being awake as long as a normal monster_ gives him. In every other timeline, he’d been perfectly capable of (and often willing to) _falling asleep in the middle of a fight,_ for crying out loud!

“NOPE, SO I GUESS YOU’RE OKAY. BUT STILL!”

He is very quickly realizing that this is not how this conversation usually goes.

* * *

You’re starting to realize that this is _definitely_ not how this conversation usually goes. Papyrus is as dimwitted and Sans as quick to pun as ever, but that’s all. Everything, from the mention of _Asriel_ to the primary topic of their discussion… well, it’s completely _new_ to you.

To me.

And, well, we just _love_ new things, don’t we?

You still don’t know why this lamp exists. Who on Earth made it? It is literally designed in such a way that, if viewed from _one single distinct angle,_ you can hide behind it and be completely invisible. And what are the chances of Papyrus ending up looking at it from that distinct angle, every single time, anyway?

_Is it that big of a deal?_

Oh, be quiet. You don’t want to know why this thing just-- just _exists?_ You take things for granted _way_ too often.

…

_Ahem._

Anyway.

“YOU KNOW, MY FIRST THOUGHT WAS THAT YOU WERE WORKING ON SOMETHING IN THE LAB, BUT YOU WEREN’T THERE!” Papyrus says, and Sans is so utterly _stunned_ by this that any response he had ready for him dies a painful death before it even leaves his mouth. He just makes some sort of… weird choking noise. It’s funny.  “SANS? ARE YOU  _ ACTUALLY _ WORKING ON SOMETHING IN THERE?”

To his credit, Sans recovers quickly. “yeah, i am. it was gonna be a surprise, but--” you can see him cross his fingers behind his back-- “i was actually working on making you your own blasters! y’know, like i have!”

There is a long silence, and Sans is visibly praying to God. Or whatever deity Monsters have. Does the Angel qualify right now, or would that technically be considering praying to Asriel? Regardless, he certainly looks desperate. Eventually, Papyrus…

...squees.

_Loudly._

**_Ow._ **

“REALLY, SANS?! OH MY GOD!! I’VE BEEN HOPING YOU WOULD DO THAT EVER SINCE ASRIEL SAID HE WANTED TO TRAIN ME!” Sans’s smile turns genuine, and you can’t help but grin too.

“yup! they’ll be done… mm… not long now, i’d say. say, how’s your training been coming, anyway?” Aaaand now he looks serious again, and I think Sans flinched for a second there. Great.

“IT’S BEEN… HARD. ASRIEL IS A VERY GOOD TEACHER, BUT ALSO VERY PERFECTIONIST-Y. MORE THAN I AM, EVEN! NYEH!”

Sans relaxes slightly, at this. He had clearly expected something much worse. To be fair, so did we. But Papyrus isn’t done speaking yet.

“HE’S BEEN TEACHING ME LOTS OF THINGS! DID YOU KNOW ASRIEL KNOWS HOW HUMAN BODIES WORK? IT’S VERY STRANGE, WITH LOTS OF WEIRD GOOEY THINGS AND-- OH, I JUST REMEMBERED! DID YOU KNOW THAT HUMANS HAVE  _ SKELETONS _ INSIDE THEM, SANS?!”

If Sans could get any paler than he already is - being a skeleton and all - he probably would. As it is, his smile has grown strained. “uh... yeah?”

“WELL, OKAY, THAT’S NOT A SURPRISE,” Papyrus concedes, after a moment. “YOU  _ ARE _ A SCIENTIST. JUST LIKE... JUST LIKE… NEVERMIND! BUT, AS I WAS SAYING! HUMANS ARE… ACTUALLY, HUMANS ARE WEIRD,” he finishes, rather lamely. There is a brief silence, and then Sans nods.

“yeah... real weird,” he says. His voice is duller and quieter than it usually is. Papyrus seems to notice, frowning at him for a second.

“IS THAT… BAD, SANS?”

“what? no, no, no no no, it’s alright,” he says, quickly regaining his composure. ”you  _ are _ a guard and all. i just never really imagined you… having anything to do with that kind of thing, so it feels kinda weird right now.”

“AH. OF COURSE! YOU HAD BEEN HOPING I WOULD BE A CHEF, LIKE I HAD ASPIRED TO BEFORE WE MOVED TO SNOWDIN, RIGHT? WELLLLLLL… THAT PLAN’S KIND OF TRASHED FOR NOW. BUT THAT’S OKAY! UNDYNE SAID SHE’LL TEACH ME SOON!”

Yours and Sans’s brows shoot up in unison. Undyne _hadn’t started teaching him yet?_ You hear him mumble something to himself, before saying  “well... okay, pap.  _ tibia _ honest, it  _ is _ really cool that you’re learning that--”

“SANS, PLEASE, STOP!”

“--so… carry on?”

Papyrus looks torn between smiling at Sans’s approval and grimacing at his pun. Classic!

“WELL, OKAY,” he says, having seemingly decided to grin. “THANKS, SANS! NOW… UM… I’M GOING TO GO GET BACK TO PREPARING MY PUZZLES! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH…!” With that, he runs off, his ‘nyeh heh heh’ trailing off into the distance. Sans shakes his head and chuckles to himself as he leaves.

Is it just me, or did Papyrus seem a little more subdued than usual?

Whatever.

“welp. that was something. come on out, kid.”

You step out from behind the lamp, after a moment, and smile at him. He nods, you nod back, etcetera. “speaking of kids, how’s chara doing, anyway? they still around?”

…fuck, I'll never get used to that. Yes, and I’d like to keep it that way.

“Yeah.. which, um, is kind of weird, because--”

Do you _want_ to jinx it?!

You cut yourself off with a shrug. Sans clearly notices, but decides not to prod any further. Good. I’m not interested in having us talk about that kind of shit out here. That’s just _asking_ for trouble.

“well, alright. c’mon, let’s get to the lab before papyrus sees you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens.
> 
> ...maybe.
> 
> Yes, I seriously just did that and you did not read the first section of the chapter wrong. I intend to give Toriel at least _one_ flashback sequence, to compensate, but... yeah. I just couldn't fit her into this all that well without at least one unnecessary fight scene that I don't want to write.
> 
> Don't worry, Asgore will not meet the same fate. He'll get some actual _dialogue,_ at the very least.
> 
> Anyway... yeah. Frisk knows something, and I think some of you probably do too, at this point. If not... you'll find out soon enough.
> 
> ...
> 
> Also, you may have thought that "Narra!Chara" meant "Chara is the flavor text."
> 
> _THINK AGAIN!_


	4. IV - Shock

Sans's shortcut turns out to be a path along the river. “this thing’s connected to snowdin, so… it was only reasonable. it’s kinda hidden, so nobody ever checks it. no, the riverperson doesn't come this way. if they  _ did, _ well, we wouldn't need this road.”

He leads Frisk along for what feels like hours; the walk to Snowdin had never taken this long, had it? Nah, he was just probably exaggerating; after all, he isn't used to walking this much. ”don’t worry, kiddo; it might _feel_ like we’re gonna be walking for a few more hours, but it’s really not long now. uh, i think.” It's not like the path was repeating itself, or anything.

Was it?

They reach Snowdin soon enough, and Frisk is relieved, to say the least, to find that it is relatively identical to how they remember it. “what, did you expect spikes everywhere and houses made of black bricks and stuff?” They stifle a laugh at that, before getting a look on their face that brings back memories. Not all of them fond, but... "saving? good idea, kid. if something goes bad, well... i would rather we didn't have to go through finding tori like _that_ again, at least."

Before they know it, the two of them - three, counting Chara - have sneaked behind Sans and Papyrus's house, down into the Lab. The Machine is still active, letting off a low hum all the while. “well, here we are,” Sans says. 

Frisk’s gaze is drawn to the Machine. He notices. “yeaahhh… when i came down here about an hour back, this thing turned out to be in pristine condition. it doesn't really tell me anything i don’t already know. y'know, the same old 'we've been through this 1377 times' shtick.  _ except, _ ” he adds, turning to stare at them… “...there was another timeline before this one, and not only can i not remember it, but  _ this thing _ doesn't even know it happened at all.” Frisk seems legitimately unnerved by this revelation, and his grin widens a little.

It isn't a happy smile.

“care to explain?”

* * *

What the fuck?

Since when have we done this  _ thirteen hundred times? _ Yeah, yeah, I know, I know, you remember this shit better than I do and we died a _lot_ and all, but--  _ what? _

Hell,  _ I _ want an explanation, at this point!

Your eyes go as wide as a pair of dinnerplates. You… clearly don’t have a clue, either. Great. Sans’s expression shifts, slightly; he looks uncertain as to whether he should be frustrated or satisfied. “surprised?”

You nod, frantically. “I-- I don’t remember it, Sans-- whatever happened, it wasn’t  _ me. _ ” His expression does not change, and yet it does, which is impressive. He just… keeps staring, and his expression now seems more skeptical than satisfied. How the hell does he  _ do _ that?

“you don’t remember?” He repeats, his tone low and-- not  _ menacing, _ exactly, but ominous. After a second, you nod, and he sighs. “well, uh, okay. that... makes things a lot harder than they have to be.” He walks over to the machine, and flips a few switches.

…

I recognize that handwriting…?

...heh. _Hand_ writing. Yeah, that's what it is. Whatever; it’s probably nothing. Probably Sans’s own shtick. Haven’t we been down here before? I’m pretty sure that’s where I saw it last time, but I don’t remember clearly enough.

“so, look, kid. there’s a  _ lot  _ of timelines out there, you already know that. here’s the thing: this one has multiple going at once. apparently.” He holds up a finger, as if to say ‘one second,’ and your questions die in your throat. “don’t ask me, i don’t know. but... you’re one of ‘em. this place is 1379, you’re listed as 711 - which raises a bunch of other questions, but that’s beside the point - and-- get this-- there’s one labeled  _ 002 _ in here, and the machine can’t find it. now, i dunno what that means, what the other timeline is, or what’s going on in general, but i  _ do _ know you know more than i do. so, spill.”

... _ no, _ Frisk.

You are  _ not _ telling this jackass my life story. Don’t.

Fine.

You take a deep breath, and begin to speak. “Well… I _do_ know some things. Um, you-- you know the story about Asriel and Chara, right?” He nods. “...do you know what actually happened?” He blinks, then shakes his head. “Well… it-- it wasn’t an accident.” He gets a strange look on his face at that. I don’t like it.

“C-Chara had a plan,” you explain, and just let me note that we’re  _ both _ getting more uncomfortable by the second. “They-- you’ve all always wanted to go free,  _ always, _ and-- well, back then... they wanted-- wanted t-to help.”

“ah. i get it,” Sans says. “so, they wanted the prince to take their soul? go up and kill a bunch of humans, then come back and break the barrier? uh... in hindsight, it’s a good thing that didn’t work, huh?” Just… just get to the point, Sans. “so, that’s  _ something, _ but… what are you trying to say? did ‘old chara’s’ soul corrupt the prince’s or something? it’d explain the whole flowey situation, for one.”

There is a long, painful silence. Your eyes slip closed for a brief moment, and you sigh, and then I shake my head. “We were both in control. Both of us. Just like with me and Frisk, actually.” If my sudden appearance surprises him, he doesn’t show it. I’m surprised, honestly… most people get taken off-guard by the red eyes, if nothing else. Eh. He’s seen it before, I suppose.

I chuckle a bit, despite myself. “And, now… he-- Asriel-- he would have laughed at your puns, Sans. He could have been as old as Dad, and he  _ still _ would have laughed. He was always.. s-stupid like that, and...” I take a long, shaky breath. “...and, back then...  _ I _ wasn’t.”

His smile falters and his eyes go dark.

“To be honest? We don’t think Azzy’s in control anymore.”

* * *

There is a long silence, and then Sans lets out a long, low whistle. “this just suddenly got way, way worse. so-- you’re telling me that  _ you’re _ basically in line to be in control of the entire kingdom in, going by what happened to tori... what, a week or two, at _best?_ no offense or anything, but that’s legitimately kind of terrifying.” Chara laughs; it’s a hoarse, raspy sort of thing, and he barely stops himself from flinching at it. He’ll  _ never _ get used to that.

“None taken. I was… fucked up, back then. And I have a feeling that, this time, I didn’t get much of a chance to fix that. Azzy’s… well, the way he used to be, you could literally  _ call him a doormat _ and he’d probably say you were right. Uh, not an  _ actual _ doormat. You get what I mean when I say that, right?” He’s pretty sure that they aren’t serious about calling him that, but something about their expression implies otherwise.

“yeah, i know what the phrase means. he was a wimp, pretty much? did anything you said? that... is _not_ a good combination with someone like 'old-you.' but... huh. so, unless we do something soon, we’re all fucked, aren’t we?”

“Worse, actually; they already have one SOUL. Their own, obviously. That means, well… they don’t need Frisk.” A grim smile crosses their face, and Sans… is completely lost for words.

He doesn’t have a response for that. He couldn’t  _ possibly _ have a response to that. How the hell do you laugh off the idea that  _ Chara-- _ Chara, the unstable, genocidal lunatic that they are--  _ were-- _ has  _ that _ kind of power within reach? It was so-- so _obvious,_ and yet he'd still missed it--

...

Eventually, he musters up the strength to say a single phrase. “oh, shit.”

Chara opens their mouth to continue speaking, but they cut themself off, shutting their mouth with an audible _clack,_ at a very sudden noise--  “SANS?! I THOUGHT YOU WOULD TELL ME BEFORE YOU VANISHED IN HERE AGAIN!” Chara-- no, it’s Frisk again, their eyes are normal(-ish?) now--  _ the kid _ goes paler than a corpse, and Sans himself lets out a low groan. There is nowhere to hide them now, besides perhaps sticking them in a corner and praying Papyrus won’t notice, which he doubts will work; Pap is many things, but not  _ blind. _

Sometimes, he really, really hates that sweater.

Sure enough, Papyrus comes rushing down the stairs. “ARE YOU WORKING ON--” His sentence trails off as he comes face-to-face with Frisk. “...THAT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE A BLASTER.”

“uh...  _ blast. _ you caught me, pap - for  _ real, _ this time. papyrus, meet... meet frisk. frisk, meet papyrus.”

_ welp. this is going to be painful, isn't it? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * You feel like you're going to have a bad time. 
> 
> * _Papyrus Edition._  
>   
> 
> Short, but sweet. It only goes downhill from here, folks.
> 
> To clarify the fonts and stuff:
> 
> Sans: guess who?
> 
> Papyrus: NYEH HEH HEH!
> 
> Chara/ **Serious Sans** : I hate all of you.
> 
> ???: Something is very, very **_wrong._**


	5. V - Mercy

“...SANS, WHY IS THERE A HUMAN IN THE LAB?”

Frisk twitches at that. Sans is pretty sure they had just barely kept themself from cringing. “yeah, uh… i dunno. why  _ is _ there a human in the lab?”

“SANS, I SWEAR TO GOD, DON’T DO THIS RIGHT N--”

“maybe it's ‘cause they got  _ snowdin? _ ” A startled chuckle slips out of the kid’s mouth before they can stop it, and Papyrus buries his face in his hands.

For a brief moment, Sans thinks that this won't be too bad. And then Papyrus looks up at them again. “SANS, I KNOW YOU’RE PROBABLY ENJOYING YOURSELF, AND I’M SORRY THAT I’M-- THAT I'M ABOUT TO RUIN IT - I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO GET TO USE MY PUZZLES, MYSELF - BUT... WELL...” He sighs, deeply, and a chill runs down Sans's spine. “BROTHER… STAND ASIDE.”

“W-what?! W-- wait, can't we talk about this?!” Frisk looks about as shocked as he feels, taking a step back (and behind him, at that). Papyrus looks, for a brief moment, as if he desperately wants to say ‘YES,’ but it soon fades into resignation.

“HUMAN-- FRISK,” he corrects himself, looking thoroughly uncomfortable, “I KNOW IT WON’T BE EASY, BUT-- WE ONLY NEED ONE MORE SOUL BEFORE WE CAN ALL LEAVE! DON’T YOU WANT TO HELP US?”

After he recovers from his shock at Papyrus's actions and his surprise at that little revelation _ (so i guess he really  _ does _ need frisk, after all! that's... _something?)_ _ Sans's eyelights go dim.  “pap, please…” 

Papyrus stares at the two of them for another couple seconds, before his expression grows even more resigned than it already was. “I DON’T WANT TO FIGHT, EITHER,” he admits. “BUT, THE PRINCE… LOOK, I’M  _ SURE _ WE CAN FIGURE OUT A WAY TO MAKE UP FOR IT LATER! I MEAN, IMAGINE BEING A ROBOT LIKE METTATON! THAT WOULD BE… WOWIE! SO, PLEASE…” He closes his eyes, seemingly bracing himself. “DON’T TAKE THIS THE WRONG WAY…”

 _ like anyone would take  _ **_someone trying to ki--_ **

A bone sprouts out of the wall before either of them can react, nailing Sans in the side of the head, and he knows no more.

* * *

WHAT THE FUCK _WHAT THE FUCK_ **_PAPYRUS JUST ATTACKED HIS OWN BROTHER WHAT THE SHIT--_ **

“...BUT I’M GOING TO HAVE TO BORROW YOUR SOUL FOR A LITTLE WHILE.” Sans is lying on the floor to to your left, and he’s neither bleeding or turning to dust, so… it _looks_ like he’ll live? Thank fuck. Well, uh, where were we?

Oh, wait, that's right-- _Papyrus is trying to kill us,_ **_run like hell!_ **

You bolt out of the lab, under Papyrus's arm, as fast as you can. He makes to chase after you soon after, his boots making loud, clanging footsteps as he rushes up the stairs. “HUMAN! COME BACK!” To reiterate how ‘what the fuck’ this whole situation is, a bone flies past you as he speaks. It just barely misses your arm, embedding itself in the wall in front of you.

You turn the corner soon enough, and rush out into the chilly town of Snowdin. Papyrus follows soon after, and you half expect someone else to follow him. One of the other guards, perhaps? Miraculously, everyone seems to assume that it’s a similar situation as with the Annoying Dog stealing his attacks, and stays out of it. (...even when he’s hurling bones at you. Like, _what?_ )

Well, okay, one Monster actually _does_ seem to notice that something’s wrong, but they’re distracted by  what appears to be a friend starting up a conversation, and you run straight past them with no difficulty.

You’ve only just reached the little clearing near the river, where you usually fight Papyrus, when he suddenly shouts out “HEY! WAIT!!” A glowing, blue bone sprouts out of the ground right in front of you, and you hurl yourself to the left to avoid it--

...wait.

Blue.

Oh, _shi--_

A strange _ding_ noise echoes out of your chest, your body is enveloped in a warm blue glow, and you suddenly find it much harder to move.  “THERE WE GO! YOU’RE BLUE NOW! NOW THIS CAN GO SOMEWHERE!”

You have just enough time to turn back around to face Papyrus before a veritable _sea_ of bones rushes out at you.

* * *

His head hurts.

No, scratch that, _everything_ hurts.  “what the hell… did i get drunk again or something…? i gotta stop going to undyne’s par--” His eyesockets go as wide as they can, as he remembers where he is. “ _ oh, shit. _ frisk!” He exclaims, scrambling up to his feet.

When he stands up, he finds a bone inches away from his head, and the reality of what just happened sinks in. “papyrus… attacked me?”

** YES, HE DID. RATHER... OUT-OF-CHARACTER, DON’T YOU THINK? **

It suddenly feels as if the floor just dropped out from under him, sending him into free-fall; his eyelights flicker and die, his breathing goes funny, and his heart may as well have stopped altogether. Slowly, in disbelief, he turns to the source of the voice. He’s just-- just _standing there,_ with a rather casual posture, as if this was completely normal; looking closer, he can also see the Monster’s strange hands fiddling with the Machine, with such ease that it's almost as if he knew the function of every single button and every switch _intrinsically._

**...YES, THIS TIMELINE IS... MOST UNUSUAL... **

His skull is cracked and fractured in many, many places, and two long scars stretch up and down his malformed face. Two dim, red sparks of _something_ flicker within the empty, black voids that could be reasonably called ‘eye sockets,’ and just below that, his gaping mouth seems to be curled upwards into a small, wistful smile. His hands are strange, as if the bones had been all fused together or as if he was wearing gloves; in the center of each palm is a small, circular hole. His coat-- _the very same coat that Sans is wearing now--_ seems to distort, turning into an amorphous black mass of something with the consistency of jello, as it goes down. The strange goop drips from him in droves, leaving marks all over the floor and all over the Machine…

... _his_ Machine.

There, standing before him, is W.D. Gaster.

** HELLO, SANS. **

There is a brief pause, before Gaster seems to smirk.

** GOODBYE, SANS. **

And then, without any sort of fanfare, he _vanishes into thin air._

Sans rushes forward almost immediately. “what the f--  _ g! _ come on, man, that’s just--  _ wh-- _ ” The Machine begins to make a loud screeching noise, as its screen begins to flicker, frantically displaying hundreds upon hundreds upon _thousands_ of lines of Wingdings text, the very same unholy ‘language’ that Gaster was forced to speak. He recognizes some of them-- they’re _entries from Gaster’s log._ One in particular catches his eye _\--_

_ ENTRY_07 _

_ The first tests have begun. Subject S03351 (hereby referred to as just ‘the subject,’ for convenience) has been injected with .015% of our supply, an amount that Doctor Alphys’s research has indicated as being ‘safe.’ So far, the results are astonishing. _

_ Where, once, the subject would struggle to so much as conjure a single bullet, now he can command the same powers as I can. He can manipulate space and time to make it seem as if he has teleported, he can use blue magic to manipulate gravity in ways that were previously unheard of, and he can even  _ **||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||**

_ Other effects include a massive HP boost - where it was once a pitiful 50, now it is growing into the thousands (currently, readings display it at 4581 and steadily rising) - and, to quote Doctor Alphys, an “absolutely badass” glowing cyan light in his left eyesocket when he uses his magic. _

_ I will confess, here and now, that… yes, it does look pretty cool. _

The entries soon stop scrolling. There, at the very bottom, is a notification about the mysterious ‘TIMELINE 002’:

** ANOMALY DETECTED. SUBJECT LOCATED IN THE UNDERGROUND: TRUE. LOCATION: 44.41226409999999/-110.723184 (HOTLAND LABORATORY) **

Whatever the supposed _anomaly_ was… it’s at Alphys’s lab. _Gaster’s lab._

The Machine, having imparted that last bit of information, sputters and dies before his very eyes, and the shrill screech finally, abruptly stops.

Sans is so stunned that he almost forgets what he had been doing. But, then, soon after the Machine’s untimely demise, a loud scream rings out through the Lab, coming from outside, and he realizes with a jolt that _Frisk is still in danger._

He spins around and bolts out of the Lab before the scream has even ended.

* * *

Papyrus is way, way stronger than you’re used to. He doesn’t seem to be holding anything back-- bones fly at you from all directions, some fast, some slow, some barely going up to your ankles and some _taller than Papyrus himself,_ some a glowing, translucent blue or orange, and some as solid white as the ground under your feet.

You dodge it all, of course-- you’ve fought worse before. Papyrus, for all his power (I’m genuinely disappointed that this is the first time we’re seeing this) is _nothing_ compared to a vengeful Sans. He doesn’t seem to be very frustrated by your inability to die, either; he just keeps hurling bones at you.

“YOU ARE MAKING THIS MUCH HARDER THAN IT HAS TO BE,” he eventually observes, expression unchanging. Yeah, _no shit._

“Papyrus, stop!” You cry out, narrowly dodging another series of bones. “This isn’t going to help! If-- if Prince Asriel gets his hands on seven SOULs, he’s going to kill _everyone!_ ”

“THEN MAYBE WE CAN HAVE AN ENTIRE RACE OF METTATONS?” Papyrus shoots back, and if you weren’t in the middle of a fight you’d probably have burst out laughing. As it is, the sheer absurdity of it surprises you enough that-- oh, _f--_

_fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck_

A bone collides with your leg and you scream and suddenly your legs won’t work anymore and _why is the snow red_ and you’re pretty sure that he’s _about to kill you_ and _holy shit Papyrus is way worse than you remember_ and **_why is the snow red--_ **

You can dimly make out a sound that you can vaguely identify as a bone materializing somewhere. “HUMAN… IT WAS NICE TO MEET YOU.”

...that brings back memories…

“GOODB--... GOOD--…”

Something lands on the ground in front of you. You let out a hoarse gasp as the blue magic around your SOUL dissipates, letting you scramble to your feet and away from Papyrus. “I CAN’T DO THIS,” he says, looking and sounding utterly defeated. “I DON’T WANT TO HURT YOU, HU-- FRISK. I... I KNOW YOU AREN’T GOING TO END UP LIKE METTATON. LOOK, I... WE ALL WANT TO GET OUT, BUT… YOU’RE JUST A KID. AND IF GETTING US OUT OF HERE MEANS I HAVE TO HURT MY OWN BROTHER, THAT I H-- I HAVE TO  _ KILL _ A  _ CHILD… _ ” He murmurs something to himself. It sounds vaguely like _ ‘GOD, I’VE MESSED UP.’ _ Then, he continues. “...IF I HAVE TO DO THAT, THEN WE’RE NOT LEAVING. I WANT EVERYONE TO BE  _ HAPPY, _ NOT… NOT  _ DEAD. _ ”

Without another word, he tosses you what appears to be a Unisicle. The moment you catch it, you nearly shove the entire thing down your throat. The effect is immediate; suddenly, your body doesn’t hurt anymore, you feel so _warm_ and everything seems like it might turn out okay. A smile crosses your face of its own accord. Monster food will _never, ever get old,_ will it?

The moment you’re finished, Papyrus brightens up a little. “BESIDES, I’M SURE YOU AND SANS CAN FIGURE OUT ANOTHER WAY OUT! SANS IS SMART ENOUGH FOR IT, AND HUMANS ARE WEIRD ENOUGH THAT I WOULDN’T BE SURPRISED IF YOU COULD DO SOMETHING, TOO!”

Huh. You’d think he hadn’t just nearly stabbed you in the head. You smile at him, and say “I promise we’ll try our best, Pap,” before standing up straight, waving and turning to leave as if nothing had happened.

...huh.

Well, that went well. Somehow. Uh, the ‘nearly got murdered by Papyrus’ thing was bad, but it seems like he’s still himself, thankfully, so that didn’t act--

“I’m disappointed in you, Papyrus.”

_...no._

You can hear footsteps behind you, now. They sound… strange, like bare feet ( _paws_ ) on the snow, almost too quiet for you to hear. Papyrus lets out a noise that sounds kind of like a cat being strangled, before he turns around. You don’t-- _I don’t--_ we _both_ don’t want to look. But we turn around all the same.

I’ve never been so terrified to see ‘God of Hyperdeath’ Asriel in my life.

“You had so much potential.” It’s his voice, but-- _that isn’t how he talks--_ “So much time was invested into your training, into detaching you from your _work,_ into making it so that when _this exact moment_ finally came, you could bring yourself to _kill._ But you _didn’t._ If you held nothing back, you could likely take on Undyne in a fight, you know? You’re just… _too nice._ ” He growls the last words out, taking a step forwards. “You’ve failed in your duties as a Royal Guard, Papyrus. You’ve gone against everything they have sworn to do, you’ve actively _betrayed_ the entire Underground… by letting this lone, pathetic Human live.” As he speaks, his glowing red eyes - _my_ eyes - drift away from Papyrus.

And they lock onto you.

“I have had bad experiences with traitors in the past, Papyrus. I don’t much care for them; they can ruin even the best-laid plans, simply by being alive. You understand, don’t you?” His mouth twists into a smirk, and he raises a hand. A strange noise, like Sans summoning a Blaster or Dad drawing his trident, echoes out through the clearing, and the entire area is bathed in a dim red glow... but you can’t see the source; Papyrus is standing in the way. “If you want you and your brother to live, turn around and finish what you started. If not… face me. And die a traitor.”

There is a long silence, and then Papyrus turns to face you. You take a step back… and Papyrus simply mouths “RUN,” before spinning around and hurling what has got to be the largest bone either of us has _ever_ seen, right in Asriel’s general direction.

Despite the shock (that thing just _appeared,_ for fuck’s sake) you don’t need to be told twice; you immediately bolt for the entrance to Waterfall, running as fast as your short little legs can carry you. As you run, Asriel lets out a terrifying _roar,_ and you hear the sound of a massive _explosion_ behind you--

* But it refused.

...what?

Frisk, why aren’t you Resetting?

_Frisk, talk to me._

“I-- I can’t--”

…

 _MOTHER_ **_FUCKING--_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shit just got real.
> 
> And so ends Act I, which, for the sake of having something to call it, we'll just retroactively name "Act I: Awakening." We're moving on to Waterfall, now, folks, and that marks the beginning of...
> 
>  
> 
> Act II: Memory.
> 
>  
> 
> (we aren't done with Papyrus just yet, don't worry. He's going to get a few moments to shine before we get to Waterfall proper.)


	6. VI - Loyalties

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My schedule is going to go from daily to a little bit weirder, now that Act I is finished and the chapters are getting longer. I hope you guys don't mind.

* * *

 

The clearing is filled with fog. The remains of the massive bone - Papyrus’s so-called Special Attack - lie all around him, having been somehow _cleaved in half_ by some unknown force. As the dust settles, he can see that the Prince doesn’t appear to have been affected by the attack at all. In fact, he’s still _smiling._

“Was that your ‘Special Attack,’ Papyrus?” He asks, and something in his tone gives him the impression that Prince Asriel is mocking him.

Papyrus slowly lowers his hand, letting the strange orange fluid drip out of his eyesocket and into the snow. That attack took far, far too much out of him… but that doesn’t matter, now. Asriel’s eyes widen fractionally at the sight. “YES, IT WAS. YOU AREN’T VERY SURPRISED, ARE YOU? LUCKY FOR ME…” His eye begins to glow a vibrant orange and the ground begins to shake. “IT ISN’T DONE YET!”

The ground underneath Asriel’s feet bursts open, and what must have been at least fifty blue bones fly out, moving to form a cage. Asriel looks around, gazing at the bone cage, before scoffing. “You meant to use this to trap a Human, didn’t you?” Papyrus just nods. “Well, that’s funny. Your strategy would likely be flawless… but here’s the thing: I’m _not Human._ ”

And then he simply _steps through the cage,_ and the bones shatter as he walks. The last remnants of his modified Special Attack clatter to the ground behind him; specifically, two twin orange bones, one on either side of the cage. Asriel glances back at them for a second, and that’s all the time he needs--

Papyrus lunges forward, a long bone forming in his hands as he moves. He swings with purpose - not to kill, but to disarm or perhaps knock Asriel unconscious. _ HE WON’T BE ABLE TO TURN AROUND IN TIME, _ he hopes. But then something happens that he didn’t expect:

Asriel simply raises his hands, and two glowing _red_ sabers materialize in his hands and block the bone mid-swing, without him even turning around. “That was a cheap move, Papyrus. I’m proud of you,” he remarks, a small, _sincere_ smile on his face, before he spins around and--

_ "PAPYRUS!" _

* * *

You keep running until you can’t hear the fighting anymore, and then you run some more. You bolt straight past Sans’s station and the waterfall beyond, and you don’t stop until you reach the room just before the bridge puzzles, and where, _normally,_ you’re nearly attacked by Undyne. You still expect her to show up, but… now that you’re here, she is curiously absent.

By the time you get there, you’re out of breath, panting and wheezing and even though Papyrus’s blue magic has been off of you for quite some time now, your legs still won’t work properly. You aren’t sure if your mind’s working properly, either, or your heart, which is racing at a pace fast enough to match Sans’s shortcuts.

...Papyrus…

Papyrus is _dead,_ isn’t he?

_It’s my fault._

Frisk, no. It’s not your fault, it’s not mine, it isn’t Sans’s, and it sure as hell isn’t _his._ It’s _the other me._ It’s…

It’s _them._ Not you.

The thought still brings you to your knees, and your wheezing is now intermingled with sobbing and an occasional cough. How many more are going to die before this is over, you wonder? I don’t think we want to know the answer to that, Frisk.

“Whoa, there, kiddo. You look like you’ve had a rough day! Need a hand?”

The voice surprises you, to say the least. You don’t recognize it - not really - but something about it seems familiar and out-of-place. It’s gruff, old and clearly coming from somewhere in front of you; the speaker’s shadow is short and almost sort of circular, and… wait.

I recognize that hat!

“G-Gerson?!”

The elderly turtle lets out a bellowing laugh at your surprise, seemingly completely ignoring the fact that you know his name. “Wa ha ha! Of course! I heard there was a Human in town, and… eh…” He suddenly looks a little more grim. “I wanted t’ help.”

“Wh-- what? Why?”

He sighs. “Kid, I don’t like the way the Prince is runnin’ things ‘round here. You probably saw on the way in, but we aren’t doin’ too good.” You shake your head. “Eh? No? Huh. Well, alright-- the state yer in, I’m not surprised if yer eyes didn’t work fer a little while there!” He laughs again. “But… look. Most of the Monsters ‘round here don’t want anything to do with gettin’ to the Surface right now, not while the Prince is the way he is. You… well, _you_ seem to be our best chance at getting things fixed. I hurried over th’ moment I heard you were heading in our direction.”

You stare, for a moment. And then you nod and try and stand up straight again. “O-okay…? B-but, um, how can you… how can you help me, exactly…?”

Gerson grins. “You didn’t get any food back at Snowdin, didjya? Trust me, yer gonna need some. That’s where _I_ come in.”

It isn’t long before you’re grinning, too, despite everything. Mood whiplash, much?

_Oh, shush._

* * *

 

_ no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no _

_ "PAPYRUS!" _

_ this is not happening this is not happening this is  _ **_not_ ** _ happening _

Papyrus falls to the ground, clutching at his spine, and for a brief moment Sans forgets how to breath. “…OW… THAT-- THAT HURT…” That was an _understatement;_ even at this distance, Sans can _see_ the dust flowing from the wound, there’s so much of it--

 _ why does it always have to be papyrus? why, why, why, why,  _ _WHY?_

Asriel turns to stare at him, his smile unwavering. "Hello, Sans." The swords in his hands crackle with a strange energy as the wind begins to howl. Papyrus’s breathing grows heavy and slow, and his form begins to distort and disintegrate, and soon--

Soon, there isn’t anything left of him at all.

Not even a scarf.

“You’re angry, aren’t you?” Asriel says, after a few moments, tilting his head ever so slightly. “I would be too. If someone took Chara from _me_ like I just took Papyrus from _you?_ I would rip them to _pieces_ and _enjoy every moment of it,_ even if I was a little boy and not the man I am now!” At that, he laughs. It’s an empty, cruel laugh, one that makes Sans shiver. “Love is strange, isn’t it?” His grin grows wider. Sans isn’t entirely sure if he just made a pun on LOVE or not, but that isn’t important. “You know, this isn’t _my_ fault, Sans. It’s _theirs._ It’s _his._ He was _weak,_ and I punished him for it. Soon, I’ll do the same to the Human, and then--”

“and then you’re gonna wipe out the entire underground, right? ‘cause, y’know, most of us are kinda big on kindness and mercy and that kind of stuff. if you forced us to go to war... well…” He shrugs, before taking a deep breath. “sorry to break it to ya, but, much as most of us aren’t happy about it, we lost for a reason. we’re what  _ you _ call ‘weak.’ really, i like to think we’re just the better people out of the whole mess. though what you just did is making me kinda  _ reconsider-- _ ”

Asriel takes a step forward, his expression turning irritated. “Don’t you _dare_ start telling me that pointless _drivel!_ Me being kind and _merciful_ is why we’re still trapped down here! Me being _merciful--_ ”

“--made chara die for nothing?” Asriel’s eyes go wide at that. “well, now, we both know that isn’t true, is it?”

There is a brief silence, and then his eyes narrow. “You always _did_ know too much for your own good, Sans. If you hadn’t pushed that little button of mine, perhaps I would have offered to let you take Papyrus’s place, even _despite_ your… problem.” Something about his expression is making Sans extremely uncomfortable. “Now, though… well, now we’ll all get to see  just how long that  _ 1 HP _ lasts!”

Sans’s eyelights begin to flicker, and his grin widens. “heh. a fight to the death?” A Gaster Blaster fades into view behind him, and his eye begins to _burn._

_"I’m game."_

* * *

Gerson is nice, even though he isn’t where he’s supposed to be. Actually, it’s probably for the better; we’re going to end up fighting Undyne soon, aren’t we? You voice your concerns to him after you’ve eaten a couple Crab Apples and drank some Sea Tea, and he laughs it off.

“Undyne? Wa ha ha! Yer fine, don’t worry; she’s out visitin’ her girlfriend right now. I dunno how she can stand Hotland, bein’ a fish and all, but, either way, she goes there when she can. Once a week, if I recall correctly!”

You raise an eyebrow. Undyne and Alphys… had already started dating? “Girlfriend?”

“Yep,” Gerson confirms, nodding. “It’s the Royal Scientist, Doctor Alphys. They... eh… they met while Alphys was doin’ some experiments on the Prince’s orders--” his expression darkens. “--and though _some people,_ Undyne included, like to pretend that she was just in the area at the time, I’m pretty sure they only met ‘cause Alphys had to experiment _on her._ ”

What the _hell?_ “Wait, _what?_ ” Gerson nods, looking rather uncomfortable about the whole thing.

“The details are sketchy, but Undyne was out of it fer a while. She’s also the first case - and last, mind ya - of Asriel _lettin’ a Guard take a break from work,_ and if _that_ ain’t suspicious, I dunno what is.”

You stay silent for a moment, processing this new information. So… that sounds absolutely _wonderful,_ doesn’t it? “How is she? Nowadays?”

He shrugs. “Angry. Real angry. Napstablook’s cousin makes a fortune just being a trainin’ dummy fer her. She’s as passionate about ‘er work as she is about the Royal Scientist, and if Asriel wasn’t already, she’d probably be Captain of the Royal Guard by now. As it is, she’s in line to replace ‘im when he gets coronated.”

You don’t say anything. Neither does he, for a little while, before you ask him why he isn't curious about you knowing everyone's names already. “Wa ha ha! I was _wonderin’_ when you’d ask that! Well, ah… it has to do with who told me you were comin’.”

You raise an eyebrow again. “Who?” He opens his mouth to speak, then puts a finger to his lips.

“Now _that_ would be tellin’. Let’s just say it’s  a mutual friend o’ ours." His voice takes on an odd tone, at that. "Not long now ‘til you find out, I betcha, anyway.”

You begin to speak again, asking him why exactly he would hide the 'friend's' identity from you like that, before the silence is abruptly shattered by the sound of someone screaming. “Oh, uh-- that’s probably somethin’ you want to check on. I should go,” he says, before turning and walking away. “Good luck, kid!”

You stare for a moment, before turning and bolting back in the direction you came. You don’t go very far before you see the source of the noise; Asriel has entered Waterfall.

And he’s fighting _Sans._

* * *

 

“Hello? Yo, UNDYNE!"

"...Man, she must be out right now… probably visiting Alphys.

“Wait… what’s this? Yo, Napstablook, come look!”

“What is it……? Oh-- _oh……_ that looks like a SOUL…… it must be--”

“ _Really?!_ Oh my God, oh my God-- it’s so _purple!_

“Napstablook! Do you _realize_ what this means?! Now Prince Asriel can _break the Barrier! We’re gonna be_ ** _free!!_** _"_

“…yaaaayyyyy…?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am convinced that Papyrus is the kind of person who would use a bone as a sword. That just seems really, really damn cool.
> 
> Even though I just killed him off.
> 
> I'm not too sure about the next couple chapters; I haven't written anything like them before, and, though this is my first published work, I've been practicing for a while. So... uh... yeah, this is going to be weird.


	7. VII - Echoes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a paranoid motherfucker, so I'm just going to pop in early to warn you guys that there are flashbacks to Frisk and Chara's pasts in this chapter (and the one immediately after it), and, well... that stuff is traditionally _Not Fun._ Yeah.
> 
> I have no clue if this warning is justified or not, as not only is it likely badly-written, but it's... kind of vague? Meh.
> 
> Just in case.

The Waterfall entrance is riddled with fire and craters and the air is filled with the sounds of Blasters firing and swords swinging. Not a single one of either opponent’s attacks has landed yet, and the surrounding area has suffered because of it. However, the victor of this fight is still very, very clear already: Sans is getting tired.

He can’t keep dodging forever.

Asriel, however, seems to have no such problem; he’s still swinging as fast as he can, hurling fireballs, shockwaves from his swords (what _are_ those things, anyway?) and pieces of the environment at him at all times. It’s hard to keep up, even for him; the _kid_ had certainly never started attacking from a distance, and he’s never fought anyone quite as skilled or as powerful as Asriel before.

The Prince seems to notice, too. “Getting tired, Sans? I must say, you’re doing a hell of a lot better than I expected… but it _isn’t enough._ You’re going to end up just like your brother, soon enough!”

“really? heh. keep _dreeming,_ ” he replies, before firing off another Blaster. He’s got him trapped, now-- surely this’ll be it--

When the dust settles, Asriel is standing there, completely unharmed. Or… so it seems. No, on further inspection, he’s very clearly been burned; his right arm seems to have taken the most damage, having been used to shield his face. The fur is singed and his skin is bare at some points, and-- what’s wrong with those _marks?_ “Nngh… not bad.” A feral grin stretches across his face. “You really _would_ have made a good Guard.”

“how did you even know what was happening earlier, anyway?!” Sans says, hurling another bone at him.

He laughs, sidestepping the bone with no difficulty, despite his injuries. “Simple, really! Your little comment about the Ruins made me stick around, and, well, it appears that that worked out for you, didn’t it?”

Sans says nothing. Another wave of attacks passes, and then Asriel continues. “Yes, Sans, it’s true! Your brother is dead-- because of _you!_ Doesn’t that _hurt?_ ”

It turns out, much to Sans’s surprise, that blue magic _does_ work on the Boss Monster. Asriel seems to be taken off-guard, as well, as he proceeds to slam him into every available surface, over and over and _over._ Up, down, left, right, up again, surely that stalactite should have been enough--

Asriel stands up, clutching at-- Sans’s breath catches in his ‘throat.’

Those wounds are _bleeding._

“...ha… ha… that’s not a sight I’d ever expected to see. Maybe I _should_ take you seriously.” He raises a hand, and--

A cage of fire bursts to life around him, completely blocking off any escape paths. The air crackles with a strange, alien energy-- was that _Determination?_ \- and Sans, for the first time  that he can remember, can almost actually _feel_ the heat. The cage begins to close in, and Sans begins to panic.

He steps forward, and

* * *

Holy shit--

Um, nice catch! I did _not_ expect Sans to teleport over here, but-- I guess it isn’t surprising? Asriel just handed his ass to him, so...  “Sans!”

“nngh... hey, kid. bye, kid.” he mutters back, before going limp in your arms. Um… shit.

You drag him off into a corner, hidden in the room that (still) contained that old tutu from one of the other children. Whatever happened to him, he looks like he’s going to be out for a while. You briefly consider stuffing him full of Crab Apples or something, to see if that’ll wake him up, but you immediately decide against it. You’re going to need those, too-- and you’re pretty sure he’ll be _physically_ fine, so as long as no one finds him…

You leave him there. You feel nervous about it, but that doesn’t matter; you keep going onward, hoping that he’ll find you on his own later.

…

The bridge puzzles are mildly garbage, and easy to figure out. There’s another path you don’t quite recognize, here, though-- you can see that someone’s already put down a couple of the flowers for you to follow up on, and you do so. When you reach the room on the other end, you find something… odd.

It’s a bench, with no one sitting in it and an Echo Flower nearby, whispering a distraught murmur over and over and over. One of your eyebrows raises on its own. As you draw closer, however, you find that you can make out the Echo Flower, and--

_“I just wasn’t ready for the responsibility.”_

...no.

We’re leaving. No, I don’t give a _shit_ if you want to get that quiche under the bench, we are _not_ staying here.

_C-Chara, I'm fine._

_“I just wasn’t ready for the responsibility.”_

You can’t fucking lie to me, Frisk, we’re _sharing a head._ I can _tell_ that this is f-fucking with you! What if you have a breakdown here? We c-can’t-- we _can’t--_

_“I just wasn’t ready for the responsibility.”_

* * *

  **“Well, here we are.”** **_He_ ** **murmurs something else to _himself,_ too, but you can’t hear it.**

 **You stare at the bench, inquisitively. “It’s just a bench,” you point out.** **_He_ ** **seems amused by this, muttering ‘Well done, Sherlock’ under his breath.**

 **“Yeah, it is,”** **_he_ ** **says, after a moment. “But-- listen, I’ve got a surprise for you!”** **_He_ ** **crouches down to be on-level with you, staring into your wide brown eyes with a strange look on** **_his_ ** **face.** **_He_ ** **looks happy, but not happy, and it makes you just a tiny bit nervous. “ You just stay right here, and I’m gonna go get it! Alright?!”**

**“Alright!” You repeat, a wide grin spreading across your face.**

**And then** **_he_ ** **runs off and vanishes. “Don’t worry, I’ll be right back!”** **_He_ ** **shouts as** **_he_ ** **turns a corner. You stare after** **_him_ ** **for a second, before nodding to yourself and sitting down on the bench.**

 **You wait for a long time. For the first twenty minutes, you think** **_he_ ** **just had some trouble; by the second set of twenty minutes, you’re starting to get worried, and by the end of the first hour you’re genuinely afraid. “Dad?”**

**“Dad!”**

**But nobody came.**

**You look around, eyes wide and skin pale, hoping to see** **_him_ ** **come rushing over with his surprise any second now. “D-dad? P-please, come on--”**

**But nobody came.**

**“DAD!”**

**_But nobody came._ **

**You wait more. Another thirty minutes pass, and the most you see of anyone is a couple cars driving by. You can feel tears welling up in your eyes, now. You don’t know what just happened, but you’re starting to realize that Dad isn’t coming back.**

**The end of the second hour finds you curled up into a ball, sobbing.**

**It takes you only twenty more minutes to stand up from the bench and start wandering around. You don’t know where home is. You don’t recognize this street, or these houses, or these people, and they look at you funny when you ask them for help. Most of them don’t even help you when you go around calling out “DAD!” again.**

**No one ever does anything, no one comes at all, not even another kid like you, and you despair.**

**It’s a feeling you’re going to get used to soon.**

* * *

 Frisk?

Frisk, it’s okay… it’s okay, snap out of it. That shit’s _done with,_ okay? We aren’t ever going to see that scumbag again. Okay? Please, just-- _hello? FRISK!_

* * *

_Little Ebott._

_It’s a quaint little town situated near a massive, hulking mountain - its namesake, the infamous Mount Ebott, legendary in the area for its supposed disappearances. No one who goes up to the mountain alone ever returns. Search parties have been sent in the past, but no one is ever found._

_You suppose it’s for the best that it’s that way; the town itself is full of horrible people and you aren’t any better, and it's not long now until you're just another one of the kids that vanished into the mountain._

_The town’s a beautiful sight from atop Mount Ebott, with a little river running through the town and the farms off to the west and the large playground near the town hall, with children playing and laughing in it as you watch. The place only_ looks _pleasant, however; the moment someone sets foot in the place, everyone immediately turns on them._

_Even if they were born there._

_All you had to do was be a little_ **_different,_ ** _a little_ **_odd,_ ** _and suddenly everything would come crashing down on top of you. The children would call you ‘freak’ at school, the teachers would laugh when you begged them to do something about it,_ random strangers _would leer at you and glare like you were a particularly annoying insect, your own_ family--

_“Your mother didn’t die so I could raise an_ it! _”_

_It’s not fair._

**_It’s not fair._ **

_It’s not fair that_ you _get mocked for your ‘stupid haircut’ or tortured because you have ‘a demon’s eyes’ or-- or--_

_Or attacked because you’re a_ **_monster._ **

_You’re a_ **_monster_ ** _to them. You, with your pale skin and your gaunt face and your_ **_red eyes._ ** _Always the eyes! Always, always-- they looked at you, and one kid had the audacity to ask you if you’re a_ **_vampire,_ ** _and that was one of the_ **_least_ ** _painful things that they could have said (_ ** _did say_** _). The things these people have done to you because you supposedly ‘don’t believe in God," or because ‘God is trying to test them,’ has made you question if there_ is _a God, because if there_ is _he hates you with a burning passion._

_You haven’t_ done _anything!_

**_It’s not fair!_ **

_No, no no nonono that’s a lie, you_ have, _haven’t you? You’ve killed people-- you killed your mother, didn’t you? She died giving birth to you. Even if that doesn’t count, the bloody knife in your pocket sure as hell proves that you’ve done bad things too by this point. You’re as monstrous as they made you out to be, and you don’t care because_ he _deserved it. They_ all _deserve it, and if you live through this, one day you’ll come back and you’ll make them_ **burn.**

_He had been the only one that followed you to that little corner, the only one who cared enough to keep taunting you. And that had been a mistake, because you’re stronger than him and, by now, you've_ proved _it._

_……_

_“What are you doing, Charlotte?” He says. “We’re just treating you the way you deserve to be treated. You know, like we’ve been taught!” And that’s a complete_ **_lie_ ** _and you_ **_tell him that._ **

“Funny... I thought they taught you to treat people the way _you wanted to be treated._ And… well...” _You’re surprisingly calm -_ too calm, _a part of you thinks - as you twirl the knife around a little. It’s a clumsy, stupid-looking maneuver, but it does what it was intended to do; he goes as pale as you are, and he starts to_ stammer. _It’s_ adorable.

_“W-wait, what are you doing? P-put that down!”_

_You don’t put it down. You just start grinning._ “Nah, I don't think so. You know-- you've treated me like an animal for a while; it's only fair that _I_ get to treat you like one, too. Do you know what happens to some animals? Say, for instance... _pigs_ like you?” _You look like a maniac at this point and probably sound like one too, like a psychopath or a genuine monster wearing human skin, and that’s okay._

_You’ve wanted to do this for a while._

“They get slaughtered.”

_He screams, and screams, and_ screams,

**_but nobody came._ **

_No one can hear him. They’re too busy playing and working and doing everything they can to ignore_ you. _How amusing._

_You don’t stop stabbing until his chest is a bloody pulp and your arm is too sore to move anymore. When that happens, you leave for the mountain and don’t look back. Whatever hope you had at surviving this has disappeared in an instant, and so…_

_Now it’s time for you to disappear as well._

* * *

  _...your name was Charlotte?_

Wh--

…

I was young, and I was stupid, and I wanted nothing to do with the name anymore but I couldn’t think of anything better. I mean… at least I had the decency to change the _pronunciation._

What? Did you think my name was _always_ Chara? Okay, true, they _did_ name you ‘Frisk’ right out of the gate... I guess that probably has something to do with it.

_That’s a nice name, you know..._

Good for you, I’m never using it--

_...but Chara’s nicer._

…

Of all the things you could have chosen to focus on right now, why my name?

_...I d-don’t want to think about the other stuff…_

Do you want to get some sleep or something? I can take over for a little while, if you need me to.

_I’d… probably have nightmares, wouldn’t I?_

...you got me there.

Let’s just keep going-- let’s let the Underground take your mind off of things.

I think I need the distraction, myself.

* * *

 Waterfall is boring and tedious and that bullshit we just got through doesn’t help matters at all, but, if nothing else, it takes your mind off of things. The glowing crystals lining the walls and the Echo Flowers, whispering various things (some happy, some not) do certainly serve as a good distraction, at least.

You wander past the story of the War of Humans and Monsters without so much as looking at the writing, though. I don’t think we need to read that again. As you walk through the area where Undyne first attacked, you think you can see a strange gray figure out of the corner of your eye, at the other end of the pier; when you turn to look at it, however, it disappears. Weird.

Soon enough, you run into Monster Kid. “Yo!” He greets. “Are you a kid? You’ve got a striped sweater, so…” You look down at yourself, then back up at him, and nod. “Cool! Yo, you wanna see this thing me and Napstablook found, before one of the Guards comes and picks it up?”

...that is a very, very ominous request. You nod again, anyway, and he rushes off into the distance. The Bird is willing to carry you across the river, surprisingly. Presumably there’s been lots of Monsters using it today… “So, um, we were trying-- WHOA!” You try, in vain, to stifle a laugh when you come across the sight of him face-down in the dirt. I’m still amazed he can get back up. “Um, anyway, we were trying to find Undyne, you know? And-- well, here it is!”

You turn the corner and freeze solid, and-- oh, _god damn it._

It’s one of the SOULs. It’s a glowing, luminescent purple - Perseverance, isn’t it? - and looks vaguely crystalline. It’s… beautiful, honestly, but the sight of it still makes your blood run cold.

“Cool, huh?”

“Y-yeah,” you murmur. “Real cool. It’s a Human’s, r-right?” He nods, frantically.

“Yup! Napsta sent off a message to one of the guards so they could come get it, but they didn’t tell me who, so-- I hope it’s Undyne, man! That’d be _so cool!_ ”

As if on cue, Napstablook fades into view. “...so….. they should be here in twenty minutes…… you’re new,” they observe, staring at you for a second. Something in their beady black eyes makes you uncomfortable. They move a little closer, seemingly to get a better look at you, and then they whisper something that makes your heart skip a beat:

“......you two probably don’t want to be here when the guard gets here……”

..god f-- I _never remember that they know I'm here!_

You nod, after a second, your face as pale as theirs. “Well, um… that’s cool, MK,” you say, turning to look at the child in question. “I’m gonna go poke around the-- um, the garbage, now. You know.” He stares, for a moment, before grinning.

“‘Kay. Have fun! I’m gonna keep watching this SOUL so nobody steals it.” He then proceeds to turn and resume staring at the SOUL.

You stare for a second, then run off as fast as you can.

Well, this is already terrible. This can’t really get much worse, can it?

“Hey, PUNK! Where do you think you’re going?!”

…

Just-- kill me now. Not _you,_ Frisk, _me._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well.
> 
> That was... something?
> 
> I still don't know if I can write these kinds of things properly, to be honest, and I'm iffy about Chara's lines in their flashback, but it's there nonetheless, so... I hope you guys at least _kinda_ like it. Heh.
> 
> The next chapter is going to be extra-long, and is taking an extra amount of time to compensate, but it should hopefully be out before the end of the month. Once that's over, I'll be back in more comfortable territory and we'll be past any bumps in the road. Until then... uh..
> 
> I'm just gonna go get back to work. Have fun, all.
> 
> (also, yes, canonically Napstablook is aware of the narrator, whether said narrator is Chara or not. They reply to their own description if you Check them, after all. That.. raises many questions.)


	8. VIII - Memory

_ “Sans? Angel above, did you fall asleep  _ again?"

_ “mmrgh… what? what’d i miss?” _

_ “SANS! YOU MISSED THE ENTIRE LECTURE!” _

_ “really? huh. you didn't happen to write it down, didjya?” _

_ “...very funny, Sans.” _

_After a moment, Sans shrugs. “you got me. to tell the truth, i heard the whole thing just fine. stuff about souls, right? the differences between monster souls and human souls?” _

_ “Correct. You’ve been practicing.” _

_ “nope. no need, anymore. by now, i can do it--” _

_ “NO!” _

_ “--with my  _ eyes closed."

 _Papyrus lets out a groan, despite the corners of his mouth tilting upwards._ **Gaster,** _however, is not amused. “To be absolutely sure..." _**he** _says, eyes narrowing slightly. “List the abilities granted by excess Determination, from the weakest to the most dangerous.” Sans tries to fake a groan, before he gladly obliges._

_ “do i have to? heh. well… okay, so, first of all, monsters with excess determination - at acceptable levels, ‘course - are more durable than ones without. The excess helps enhance their magical power, which…” _

* * *

The first thing he notices is rushing water.

The second thing he notices is that his head hurts, most particularly around his left eye. He’d used too much magic… “nngh. that stings… least i’m alive,” he mutters, pushing himself up into a sitting position. He doesn't recognize the room he is, which is a first; he knows most of Waterfall like the back of his hand, by now.

By now…

That phrase sounds… familiar.

_ nah, it’s probably nothing. _

He stands up, rubbing his skull with one hand. On further inspection, it actually appears that he’s in the room that had once contained the supposed ‘Dusty Tutu.’ He has rather unpleasant memories of this room; he’d had to kill the girl himself, after all.

She’d been so scared, and yet-- well, she was certainly good at dodging. Asgore had been forced to turn to him for help, when the Royal Guards failed; he has a sneaking suspicion, to this day, that she had been able to Reset, but… well, how exactly was he going to find out? His memory was way better _now_ than it _had been,_ so to speak, and the girl was long dead, regardless.

_ “...no hard feelings, kid. i’m just doing my job.” _

The words still leave a bad taste in his mouth, after all these years.

Asgore had never asked him for help again, after he entered the throne room, a child’s ( _still warm_ ) corpse in his arms, his eyesockets empty, and _his mouth twisted into a frown._ The King had never seen him frown before that, and, no matter which timeline it was, never saw it again. He was one of the few who could say he’d seen it at all; the others were Papyrus, and…

His brow furrows. Had the kid seen him frown before? He doesn’t remember…

** YOU’VE FORGOTTEN A LOT OF THINGS, HAVEN’T YOU, SANS? **

For the second time in a single day, he freezes in place out of complete shock. The only sounds that can be heard come from the waterfall just beyond the cave; even his _breathing_ has gone silent. The only thing his eyes will ( _can_ ) focus on is the dark shape in the corner of his vision. He can see a warm smile, a cracked eye, a small badge--

** I THINK IT IS TIME YOUR MEMORY WAS IMPROVED A LITTLE. **

* * *

_ “How is your work coming along, Sans?” _

_“good as usual, doc. uh, for the most part. i did have to go down and fit the power couplings together myself when those old machines couldn't, but.. eh. i’m_ determined _to make this thing work.”_ **Gaster** _allows himself to smile a little at that; Sans can’t see him._

_ “Very well,” he says, after a moment, carefully keeping his voice level. “Keep up the good work.” _

_They’re so close._

_The invention they are working on is a design Alphys had come up with; she had had the idea that, if Determination made Humans so strong, well... what would happen if a Monster was given some? He had been rather cautious, initially, but her research into the matter - mostly experiments with the two SOULs they had access to - had proven that it was all possible. Determination was malleable, adaptable--_

_And could be_ extracted.

 _King Dreemurr had been all for the idea; he's been anxious to find a way to break the Barrier without all seven SOULs for a long time, and… frankly,_ **Gaster** _can’t blame him. The declaration he had made sixty years ago has cost him his last remaining family and put an_ enormous _amount of stress on him, and… for all his power, nobility and skill at leadership, Asgore can’t handle that mess alone. He is not his father._

_His father would have killed Heir Chara on the spot, not adopted them._

_ He should know. _

_Regardless, work had begun on the machine almost immediately; the design was fairly simple, all things considered, but required extensive use of his magic, and that of the other scientists. Even Professor Omegus had lended a hand when asked; though his predecessor has been retired since the Barrier was created, and should have, by all rights, Fallen Down by now, her magic is still as strong as ever, and they need, had needed, and will likely continue to need it until the Extractor is complete._

_Sans, on the other hand, is more of a physical person. It’s not a surprise; he has no magical power to speak of, so there is nothing else for him to_ do. _He_ had, _however, signed up to be the first test subject for when the machine was finished. It was a risky maneuver - and not one that_ **Gaster** _was happy with - but one that Sans felt was necessary._

_He’d become powerful enough to protect his brother or die trying._

_He_ _pauses on the way to his laboratory, stopping to step inside his office. After a brief moment, he pulls a small tape recorder out from a drawer and begins to speak:_

_ “Entry number… five.” _

_ “Work on the DT Extractor is progressing as planned; Doctor Alphys and her mother have been carrying the majority of the workload fairly well, and Sans has developed a way with machinery that makes him invaluable despite his lack of magic.” _

_ “The machine should be finished shortly; when that happens, Sans will be the first to be injected with Determination. I am not very happy about it, to be honest, but he insisted, and… well, we can’t exactly use Dust for this sort of thing.” _

_ “I have begun work on another Machine, as a side project; our recent endeavours into the so-called 'Void Room' in the CORE have not ended well, and I feel that it may be very, very useful if we knew just what the Void can be used for. Therefore... well, I will have to see if it _works _ before I make any promises, won't I? Ha.” _

_ “...yes, these following years are going to be very, very interesting.” _

* * *

Sans falls backwards, clutching at his head and grimacing. “wh--”

** MORE WILL COME IN TIME. YOU PROMISED ME YOU WOULD NOT FORGET; NOW IT IS TIME I HELPED YOU KEEP THAT PROMISE. **

Gaster vanishes before Sans has even seen him clearly, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

After a moment, he stands up, brushes himself off, and gets moving. _ kid’s probably run into undyne by now… if she’s anything like how she is in the usual timeline, they’re gonna need my help. _ The thought makes him move faster.

_ yeesh. i really should have picked the sneakers today… _

* * *

You don’t even bother trying to act natural. Instead, the moment you hear Undyne’s voice, you bolt. The spears flying past your head kind of make it clear that anything else would have been suicidal, so… good call.

Undyne doesn’t say much during the chase; by the time she does, she’s chased you all the way back to the bridges that she had chased you on in the last timeline…

...and, _also_ like usual, right back into a dead end. Well, shit.

“Nowhere to run now!” She yells, rushing forward with a spear. Wait, this isn’t how it usually goes--

You duck, weave and generally dodge her every swing. She’s way, way worse than usual, hurling attacks at you - both by throwing spears and actually swinging at you - at a speed that matches the so-called Undyne the Undying, and you’re starting to panic. You’ve always had the hardest time with Undyne-- she never, _ever_ uses the same moves. At least _Sans_ has the decency to be predictable…

As it is, however, you dodge enough that she’s visibly starting to tire out. “Wh… why…? NGAAHH! WHY WON’T YOU DIE?!” And--

How many spears even **_is_** that?! _Holy_ ** _shit!_**

You take a step back…

...and fall off the bridge.

You can see Undyne stare after you, illuminated by the dim cyan glow of her spears, before she shrugs and turns away and the light fades. You might have screamed a little on the way down? My memories are fuzzy…

Regardless… when you hit the ground, you hit it _hard,_ and everything goes black.

* * *

**This sweater is an acquired taste.**

**You had not been wearing this thing when Dad left you behind; you’d been wearing your favorite shirt, instead. It was based off of a show you really liked to watch, called Mew Mew Kissy Cutie, and you loved it.**

**But, well, it fell apart. It was inevitable, really; you were in one of the rainiest places you’ve ever seen, with no sort of shelter, with a shirt that was at least two years old. You haven’t been alive for very long, not yet, but you still know that that’s a long time, and so... while you’re sad, you aren’t exactly** **_surprised_ ** **when it falls apart overnight.**

**You wound up stealing an ugly sweater you found in a suitcase outside a house. They were probably just moving in… you felt a little bad about it, but it was their fault for leaving it out, anyway. Wasn’t it?**

**No, no, you** **_definitely_ ** **still hate this sweater.** **But it’s much, much better at keeping you warm than that stupid Mew Mew Kissy Cutie shirt ever was.**

**You don't know where Dad went; you aren't sure you'll ever see home again. That scares you a lot, and, as much as you'd like to pretend otherwise, there is no silver lining to this mess. You don't know why he left you here, you don't know where he is, you don't know _where you are,_ and you definitely do not have a clue what you're going to do.**

**But, hopefully, if you have any luck at all, someone will help. Someone will notice you, and come over and get you off the streets before something happens...**

**(...but nobody came.)**

* * *

_You rise._

_And you fall._

_You fall for a long time; you aren’t entirely sure when you hit the bottom, only that it hurts like hell and that you’re very distinctly still alive. You’re more frustrated about that than anything else, and you’d like to believe you’re groaning and whimpering and generally making pathetic noises because of that. Really, though, it just hurts, doesn’t it?_

_Yes, it_ **_does._ **

_You can see your leg, from here; it’s twisted and cut and the skin is peeling off a little and wait, is that_ **_bone?_ ** _...yes, yes it is. It looks like the fibula, maybe, or perhaps something else near it, and, to be fair, it’s only_ **_slightly_ ** _out-of-place… out-of-place in that it’s jutting out of your leg and has blood all over it._

_The sight makes you laugh a little. It makes you sound insane, and you’re pretty sure that that’s appropriate, that you’re genuinely losing whatever sanity you had, because not long after, you hear a voice._

_“It sounds like it came from over here...” It’s soft and young and so, so childish... what?_

_A strange shadow appears in your vision. You can’t make it out, just that it’s… oh, please, God, it’s not wearing another stupid fucking green sweater, is it?_

_“Oh! You’ve… you’ve fallen down, haven’t you?”_

_...hm. They_ **_are,_ ** _but it’s the least of your problems. You’re more concerned about how they appear to be a goat._

_A fucking walking, talking goat._ What? 

_You try to speak..._

“...nnngghh.”

_...smooth._

_“No, no, it’s okay, d-don’t try to speak--” you can hear his breath catch in his throat at the sight of your leg, and you can see his gleaming amber eyes have gone wide, and the next time he speaks, his voice is clearly shaking, as if he actually_ **_cares._ ** _“O-oh, oh gosh, um… I-it’ll be o-okay, o-- okay? M-my mom c-can heal you… I t-think…”_

_He should_ **_not_ ** _be strong enough to carry you like he does, but he is. He doesn’t look like he could lift something_ half _your weight, but apparently that’s completely inaccurate because he doesn’t seem to be having any trouble with carrying_ **_you_ ** _all the way out of this little clearing you’ve landed in. You pass out once or twice on the way to wherever it is you’re going; you aren’t sure if it’s out of shock or pain, or just because you hit your head and you’re dying (and/or are hallucinating this whole mess as a result)._

_(You don’t think you’re hallucinating, though. His hands are too soft. You've never felt anything like that before.)_

_Either way, the third(?) time you come to, you’re in a bed. It’s got to be the most comfortable bed you’ve ever so much as_ touched, _and you really, really don’t want to move. To be fair, you can’t; when you try to move your leg, there’s a sudden, sharp jolt of pain. You... might whimper a little. “Oh? Are you awake, child?”_

_Another person comes into view, but it’s… it’s another one of these weird goat-people. They look-- no,_ **_she_ ** _looks much older than the other one, though. She looks like she could be your grandmother, if she was human. She even has the eyes for it; they’re a dull amber, like her son’s(?), and they look like they might be glowing a little. It’s… not as unsettling as you would expect. Somehow._

_You don’t want to speak, or do anything else at all, really, so instead you just nod a little. She smiles. “Good… we were worried that the fall would have injured you in ways I cannot heal. As it is, however, you should be fine soon.”_

_“Mom? Are they up?”_

_“Yes, Asriel. Do you want to speak with them?” The boy from before-- Asriel, you guess - rushes forward immediately, grabbing your hand with his… paws? Hands? You aren’t sure._

_“H-howdy,” he says, after a moment. “Um… w-well, like Mom said, you s-should be fine soon, so… uh… my name’s A-Asriel. Um, Asriel D-Dreemurr. This is my mom, Toriel,” he says, gesturing towards the old woman. She nods; she’s still smiling. “So… er... what’s your name?”_

_You open your mouth to speak, but shut it immediately. You... you don’t want that name anymore. You want… something else._

_After a long few moments of thinking (you’re pretty sure they thought you might have forgotten your own name, and you grin for what appears to be no reason at all) you, eventually,_ **_finally,_ ** _speak:_

“My name is Chara.”

* * *

When you wake up in the flowerbed again, for the briefest of moments you wonder if it was all a dream. The rushing water right next to your ears kind of disproves that theory immediately, though, and so you sit up with a groan. This shit never gets any easier, does it?

At least you’re alive.

Trudging through the murky water of the garbage dump is rather uncomfortable, but it’s not something you aren’t used to; you’ve been through here hundreds of times, and nothing ever really changes from run to run. You have no say in what ends up here, after all. Some of the things that always show up here - excluding the Mad Dummy, which… you aren’t sure if it’s going to be here, anyway - tend to be useful.

Say, for instance, that bar of ‘astronaut food’ that you just shoved in your pockets. It tastes strange and looks like Human food, but it has the same healing qualities as regular Monster food, so you aren’t entirely sure what it is. It’s helpful, regardless.

You exit the dump with no problems; the Mad Dummy is nowhere to be seen, to your relief. Neither is Undyne, or Napstablook.

...the entire area is empty, in fact. It’s unnerving.

Okay, Napstablook’s probably in their house, but everyone else…

“looking for someone, kid?”

Your heart skips a beat, and you spin around immediately.

“Sans!”

He winks. “hey, frisk. so... that could have gone better,” he says, briefly glancing behind him to indicate what he means. You nod.

“Yeah… you’re okay, right?” His smile grows a little wider as he walks over to you. You hadn’t been able to get a good look at him since you left the Ruins, and so you look him over once again.

It’s… strange, seeing him without his hands in his pockets. The lab coat doesn’t fit him too well, either, but that’s mostly the color… something about it feels off. You’re amused to note that he’s at least still wearing those stupid pink slippers. The only time you’ve ever seen him wearing anything else was--

_ “welp. sorry, old lady… this is why i never make promises.” _

Let’s not think about that right now.

“yeah,” he says, before ruffling your hair a little with one hand. “you?”

“Undyne made me fall off a bridge,” you tell him with a straight face, and he gets a funny look on his face. Eventually, he shrugs.

“you’ve survived that a hundred times before, i guess, so that’s okay. actually, i checked that area a few minutes back; you were probably still unconscious. but, uh, i found this stuff on the ground.” He holds up two fingers - on his right hand, the one he hadn’t used before.

You look closely. Sure enough… wait, what the hell _is_ that stuff?

“you’re probably wondering what this is, right? well, i’m not too sure, myself, but the magic inside it feels a heck of a lot like undyne’s. like this is…” his voice trails off at your expression of shock.

“...part of her,” you finish. Sans’s smile suddenly grows very forced.

“you know why this stuff exists, don’t you?”

“Undyne generates a little more Determination than most Monsters--” He holds up a hand.

“yeah, i know that. the whole ‘undying’ shtick? trust me, kid, i’ve seen that a couple times.” You can’t help but look down a little at that. Of course he has.

“Well…” you sigh. “Gerson was waiting for me when I first entered Waterfall. He said someone-- a ‘mutual friend of ours--’ had told him I was coming, and, um, he gave me some food,” you say, pulling a Crab Apple out of your pocket. “He also told me that Undyne was out visiting her girlfriend… which, um, didn’t last.”

“so they’re already together? wonder why.” There is a brief silence, and then-- “...that’s the expression of somebody with bad news.”

“W-well,” you say, after a moment, scratching the back of your head. “Um, Gerson said that-- that they met while Alphys was doing some tests on Asriel’s orders, and--”

“she got experimented on, didn’t she?” He isn’t even grinning anymore. He just looks uncomfortable. You nod, shakily, and he shakes his head. “well, then. that’s… probably going to be a problem. so, lemme guess, she’s worse than usual?”

A loud crash echoes out through the clearing as you begin to speak, soon followed by an angry “NGAAAHH!”

Sans barely even glances over at Undyne’s house before he says “we can probably save it for later” and running off as fast as he can. It’s… honestly, it’s more of a jog than anything, but it’s the fastest you’ve ever seen him move without shortcuts.

You follow almost immediately, of course. The sounds of Sans’s shuffling footsteps soon cease, however, and you’re about to call out and ask why when you turn a corner.

This… this isn’t where it’s supposed to be. Turning around-- _what?_

“S-Sans, this--”

“i know,” he says, and something in his voice makes you very, very nervous.

Something is wrong.

Something is  _ wrong. _

Sans spins around abruptly, as if he’d heard something, and you flinch. But he does nothing. He just stares. “Sans?”

He doesn’t reply for a while, but then he begins to murmur things to himself. _ “dad, no. this is a bad idea! listen to me! you saw what it did to me-- we need you!” _ His eyes begin to flicker.

“Sans!”

 _ “i don’t care if it’s ‘for the best!’ the underground needs its royal scientist! papyrus needs his father! alph isn’t ready to take over, you know that! i’m not ready, either... i won’t ever be,” _ he mutters, still in that strange language, but now sounding much more forlorn.

“SANS!”

He flinches, his left eye igniting into a flaming cyan for a brief moment, before he relaxes. “gah! wha-- oh. sorry, kid, i, um… zoned out,” he says, hastily, and… _no._ Sans is _not_ that bad of a liar.

You don’t push it, though, which is good. Sans… is probably not in a good enough state of mind for that right now.

Instead, you turn back around and resume staring at the Memorial Statue, which is most definitely not where it’s supposed to be. It’s exactly as it always was; a statue of Asriel, in his Hyperdeath form. But, now… there’s a strange shape in his arms…

There is an umbrella on the ground in front of it, too. Almost subconsciously, you walk over and place it in its proper place, and... immediately, a tune begins to play, and your heart clenches. You can see, now, something that explains the strange shape-- at the base of the statue is the inscription IN MEMORY OF CHARA DREEMURR.

...oh, God.

* * *

**It had taken you a week, but you’d gotten the hint: no one wants you. No one cares.**

**You were a burden, a mistake, an idiot and a wimp and every single possible bad thing you could possibly call yourself. That was why Dad had left you behind-- it had to be! After all… you hadn’t been able to take care of yourself without him.**

**All this time, you haven’t been able to. You’ve been living off of the kindness of strangers - a rarity in of itself-- and/or stealing from strangers for a** **_week_ ** **now, and you’re certain that if you try to do that any longer, you are going to starve to death in what you had originally believed was the nicest town in the country. This was your** **_home._ **

**And, because of that, you aren’t going to burden it by leaving a body around. You owe it that much.**

**Anyone who goes up to Mount Ebott disappears, right? Let’s see how true that is.**

**You rise.**

**You fall.**

**It hurts, but** **_not enough._ **

**...**

**You wake in a bed of golden flowers. There’s a chill in the air and sunlight streaming into your face, and almost the entire room is dimly-lit. It’s not a room, actually-- it’s a cave. Close enough, you decide.**

**Of course, that’s not all that you find when you wake up…**

**You find** **_me,_ ** **too.**

**“...wh-who’s there?”**

**Hello, Frisk.**

**My name is Chara.**

**It looks like we’re partners now. Shall we begin?**

* * *

_The Dreemurrs are strange people. Everyone in the Underground is, in one way or another. Asgore is too informal (hell, most people call him_ **_‘King Fluffybuns’_ ** _and he doesn’t even bat an eye) Toriel is too generous (when necessary, she willingly has the smallest meal out of the four of you, which has left you lost for words multiple times) and… Asriel--_

_...Asriel’s just too nice._

_All of them are._

_They aren’t the only people down here, of course. Apparently. There’s hundreds-- probably_ thousands _\- of people in the Underground, as they call it… and the Dreemurrs rule, which is kind of mindboggling. These people should be_ **_even worse_ ** _than everyone else down here, and yet they seem to be the best, instead!_

_You don’t understand. This should… these thoughts should be positive, but you_ don’t understand. _You_ can’t. 

_You expect them to turn on you at any moment. To mock you for something trivial and pointless, or to punish you for simply not knowing enough (you thought you’d made that a non-issue nearly a year ago, but Monsters have a lot more things to learn about than Humans, it seems) or to abandon you the moment you weren’t needed anymore._

_They don’t._

_Asgore doesn’t seem to react at all when you break a flowerpot while playing with Asriel; in fact, he cares more about_ you, _when he sees you staring at the shards of clay, your eyes wide and your entire body shaking. “Don't worry,” he tells you, his hands on your shoulders (though they're so big he may as well have grabbed your entire arms and it would have made absolutely no difference) - “it is only a single pot.”_

_Asriel doesn't even get angry, or mock you, or do_ anything _like that when_ you _come to_ his _bed in the middle of the night, asking if you could share because - the thought makes you embarrassed even now - you’d had a_ nightmare. 

_You! You were more mature than half the adults down here, and_ you _were still the one that had nightmares so bad that you couldn't sleep alone. But Asriel doesn't mock you. He (thinks he) knows the feeling. “I fell and hurt my leg real bad once, too,” he tells you. “Mom healed it right away, but I still had nightmares for_ weeks!" 

_The two of you had laughed then. Him because he probably thought it might help, because he was probably trying to make it seem like it was nothing… and you, because you had just realized that you aren't going to only have a few weeks of nightmares, that the nightmares could be_ real _at any moment and all you have to do is_ **_screw up--_ **

_You? You laughed at his story, you laughed_ so hard _that tears wound up streaking down your face, because the alternative was to break down in the middle of a perfectly good day and ruin it for everyone else. That's the_ exact opposite _of what you wanted to do right then._

_He thinks you're a little odd after that, but, then again, he always did. And he doesn't hate you for it, either… he_ loves _you, as if you were his sibling by blood, and that_ confounds _you. You don't understand. You don't understand why he treats you-- you, with your supposedly_ demonic _features and your inexplicable maturity and_ everything _that got you assaulted and mocked and_ **_tortured_ ** _on the Surface - as if you were completely normal. You don’t understand why Toriel takes so much time out of her day to make sure that_ yours _isn't completely terrible. You don’t understand why Asgore hasn't even_ raised his voice **once** _since you fell, even after you nearly--_

_You don't understand why_ they _care, and your real family_ didn't. _Are Humans just that heartless? Are they just that cruel?_

_You already know the answer to that question-- you’ve_ **_always_ ** _known. But it doesn't help. They all still confuse you so much._

_It's not fair._

_“Uh… C-Chara?” His voice jolts you out of your thoughts, and you give him a small smile. It’s rather forced, but he doesn’t seem to notice._

“Mm?”

_“I-- I was up all-- um, all week, m-making this. F-for you.” He holds out his hands, and your breathing goes funny when you see what he's holding in them._

_It's a locket. A beautiful, golden, heart-shaped locket, with the words Best Friends Forever engraved into the metal. In this light, it almost looks like it's glowing a little. Knowing Monsters, it probably _ is. _But… this must have taken so long… what?_

_“A-and one for me,” he adds, and you can indeed see another matching locket around his neck. You raise an eyebrow, and he starts to stammer out something else. “O-okay, it wasn’t j-just me, Mom h-helped too, but… um… I just-- I t-thought… you…”_

_His voice trails off when he sees your expression. You’re both pretty sure that you haven’t grinned that widely (or that sincerely) since before you fell. He seems rather lost for words at the sight. It’s_ adorable.  “I like it. Here-- can I?” _At that, his face lights up like a Christmas tree, and he eagerly holds out the locket._

_It fits perfectly._

_“Now we’re b-best friends forever!” He immediately cries out, sounding almost too happy to speak, before he wraps his arms around you. After all this time, you don’t even flinch._

_You finally understand._

* * *

“kid? kid!”

You let out a startled cry and fall over backwards. Sans is looming over you, his expression one of concern; it isn’t long before the two of you realize that you are crying, and a pained look crosses his face. He glances over at the statue for a brief second, before turning back to you and holding out a hand.

Something in the shadows behind the statue seems to move, and you’re up and on your feet before Sans even has time to react. “W-we should go,” you quickly say, and he nods, before the two of you unceremoniously sprint out of the room. The figure behind you raises a hand, briefly, but they’re out of your field of view before you can see what they’re trying to do.

The world seems to twist in on itself as you run through the hallway, going eternally inwards and inwards and the rooms get dark, darker yet  _ darker _

before eventually you come out at a very familiar place. "Wh-- wha--"

I don't understand it either, but... the entrance to Hotland is very, very close, now.

And, you realize with a sinking feeling in your gut... Undyne probably is, too.

Sorry, Frisk, but it looks like your feelings are going to have to wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand now we're getting to the point where that Graphic Depictions of Violence tag might be kind of (not really) justified. I don't think we're going to have anything _too bad_ for the majority of the story, but I'm paranoid.
> 
> Also, this might seem a little rushed. That's mostly because paragraphs are much bigger in Google Docs than they are on this site, and also probably because the one map I could find for Waterfall was incomprehensible (and that only posed a problem when I was _halfway through the bloody chapter_ ) so, to make up for not remembering the entire map perfectly, I just settled on including more reality-warping shenanigans. I hope you don't mind.
> 
> ('Nothing ever goes to plan with these people,' indeed...)


	9. XI - Undying

You get the cave entrance soon enough; Undyne is surprisingly absent.  _ That _ makes you more nervous than anything else, though Sans is clearly relieved. “whew. she isn’t here? good. i can’t guarantee i’d be able to hold her off if she was.” I swear, if she’s standing right behind us--

“YOU!”

Sans mutters something to himself, before turning around to follow your gaze. There she is, in full armor like before. It looks… different, in a way, now that you can see it clearly, but it’s nothing like her Undying armor; you just can’t put your finger on the differences, besides maybe an increase in the amount of spikes all over it. It doesn’t seem to intimidate Sans, though, as he replies with a simple, casual “me.”

“SANS! Why are you-- why are you  _ helping the human?! _ ” Undyne pauses when she sees him, staring blankly. Apparently that ‘you’ had been directed at, well, you? Regardless, Sans shrugs.

“i’d be  _ kidding _ if i said that i could bring myself to kill a little kid. this is the next best option.” His pun only seems to make her angrier, as she sputters incredulously for a second.

“ _ You _ can’t kill a-- a--” her voice falters for a moment as she realizes what he said, but then she returns in full force. “ _ You could have just given them to the Prince, you MORON! _ ”

“now, why would i do that? pap couldn’t kill this little kid either... and  _ he got stabbed in the spine for it. _ ” His eyelights go dark, and Undyne’s eye goes wide for a second. Please tell me this means she’ll go without fighting? I would rather not see us get stabbed in the gut when I know you can’t just Load and try again.

Unfortunately, she snaps out of it pretty quick. “Yeah,  _ right! _ I was talking to Papyrus barely half an hour ago, on the phone!”

**_Oh my god are you fucking kidding me why are you seriously--_ **

Sans sighs. “only half an hour? huh. thought i was out for longer…” He shrugs. “look, d’ya really think i’d joke around with  _ papyrus getting dusted, _ undyne? use some  _ sense! _ ” But she shakes her head.

“NO! I don’t know what kind of shit the Human's using on you, Sans, but I  _ know _ those two! They’re  _ BEST FRIENDS! _ Prince Asriel wouldn’t kill one of his friends!” She scoffs. “If you really aren’t going to get out of my way, I’ll just fight both of you! You’re  _ NOTHING, _ Sans, and we both know it! I can take you both on!”

A spear materializes in her hands, and-- oh.

And her eye starts to  _ glow. _

Sans dives for cover before she can touch him, but the green magic hits you in full force, and you have a sudden realization that you might actually  _ die _ here if you aren’t careful. Undyne means business this time; spears are coming at you from all directions and shifting around in ways you’ve never seen before. Honestly? It’s a testament to your reflexes that you haven’t gotten a spear through the skull yet.

Undyne throws spears at you for around half a minute before doing something unexpected: she  _ charges at you and starts swinging. _ Her spear is blocked much like the others, but she moves much faster than the spears ever did, and you find yourself getting overwhelmed quickly.

Midway through her assault, a bone flies at her from behind and grazes with her shoulder. It blasts straight through like a hot knife through butter, sending _bits of silver and blue goop_ flying everywhere. “NGAH! Wh--”

You stumble backwards, and Undyne turns. There’s Sans, with around forty or fifty bones in the air around him and two Gaster Blasters staring directly at her. He locks eyes with you for a second, then winks. You get the message.

The second the bones start flying and Undyne is forced to focus on blocking his attacks instead of maintaining the green magic keeping you in place, you bolt in the opposite direction.

* * *

Spears and bones alike fly in all directions, with Blasters firing and the earth around them exploding. Undyne’s taken several hits so far, but that’s okay-- his intent is to injure, not kill. “SANS?! How-- since when--  _ where the hell did all this come from?! _ ”

He shrugs and winks, as another Blaster fires. “i seem to have forgotten,” he replies.  _ more or less. _ Undyne lets out a brief cry of pain as the Blaster catches her in the leg, but she doesn’t fall down. More spears fly in his general direction. “y’know, i’ve got to say, for a royal guard, you’ve got some pretty bland attacks. got anything better?”

A particularly large bone sends Undyne flying backwards. She plants the spear in her hand into the ground to stop herself, and Sans pauses. “Heh. You know what? I DO have something better.”

_ Ding! _

_ oh, shi-- _

“HOW’S  _ THIS?! _ ”

Undyne lunges forwards as spears fly at him from all directions. Sans focuses on her, using bones and blasters to block the others; he can’t block forever, and they both know it. So, instead… “you know, you should probably be focusing on the kid, not me!”

Undyne’s eye goes wide, and she stops. Then, muttering a curse, she flings Sans backwards, turns and sprints off in the direction Frisk ran.  _ least that got her off me. i can catch up to her, no prob, so it’s fine, as long as frisk lasts long enough-- _

There is a loud  _ crash, _ and the cave entrance in front of him begins to collapse. His eyes go wide, before he scrambles to his feet as fast as he can and  _ runs. come on, come on--! _

* * *

“COME BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE SHIT!”

Oh, for f--

The green magic does not return; instead, she’s hurling as many spears as she can. Some stab up from the ground beneath you, others fall from the cave ceiling, and some are actually being thrown; they all miss, but it’s more a matter of luck at this point. You sprint past the WELCOME TO HOTLAND sign without so much as a second glance, but this time there is neither a phone call from Papyrus-- your heart clenches at the thought-- or the sight of Sans sleeping at his post to help you.

Soon, a spear does indeed hit its mark, and you barely have time to scream before you’ve fallen face-down into the dirt. You fully expect the pain to get worse, for it all to be over in only a matter of seconds, but--

A loud explosion rings out through the cave, and Undyne starts  _ screaming. _ You hear the sounds of clanging metal and something falling to the ground, and then of soft footsteps. “you look like you’re having a bad time. need a hand?”

You grab his hand and scramble up to your feet as fast as you can. As you do, you catch sight of your injury, and nearly cry out again-- there’s a massive, gaping  _ hole _ in the middle of your foot. You can even see _ exposed bone _ if you look closely enough; the sight makes you feel a little nauseous. You know this kind of thing has happened to you a  _ lot, _ but  _ seeing _ it is a whole different story.

Undyne struggles to lift herself up, but manages it. “...fuck, fuck, fuck… y-you’ve been holding out on me, Sans, you motherfucker!” She shouts, barking out a laugh.

But there’s something wrong. Something’s… something’s  _ very _ wrong. Her armor looks misshapen, her mouth is drooping in an unnatural way, her entire body seems to be shrivelling up into itself… holy shit, she’s  _ melting. _ Her eye widens as she realizes what’s happening, and before you know it her spear is on the ground and fading away and she’s on her knees. “F-fuck-- nnrghh… I-- c-can’t…”

You wolf down a Crab Apple as fast as you can. The healing is, thank God, much less painful than the actual injury, and you regain your balance soon enough. Undyne can barely even raise her head to look at you; you aren’t sure if it’s her own choice, or if the state of her body makes it impossible. “G-go on,” she says. In the state she is now, it comes out gurgly and choked, and you cringe. “...kill me.”

Sans stands there, staring at the two of you, his expression unreadable. You bite your lip, for a brief moment, thinking (read: shooting down all of my suggestions). Hey, what if she’s about to die, anyway? You know, that’s actually a valid point, so… how about we--

_ No, Chara. _

Fine, fine. You sheath your little toy knife - you hadn’t bothered finding anything better yet, for some reason - and pause for a second, before hesitantly holding out your last Crab Apple. “Will this help?”

Her head snaps up to look at you, incredulously, sending droplets of sludge everywhere. A little lands on your forehead, and you flinch a little. “W-what the h-hell are-- are y-you  _ doing? _ ”

“I don’t want to fight,” you reply, softly. “I never did.” Aaaand cue the inexplicable glowing gold halo! No, I’m just kidding.

Out of the corner of your eyes, Sans nods. You aren’t sure what the gesture means, but it seems good enough. After a brief moment of hesitation, Undyne shoves the apple back into your hands and begins fumbling around with something in her belt. When you see what it is, your eyes widen. So do Sans’s. Actually, the skeleton completely loses his composure in general at the sight, as far as you can tell.

It’s… a syringe. “undyne, is that...?”

“Yeah… it is. H-heh. Funny, right? Who’d ever think that the solution to ‘Determination Poisoning…’” she lets out a hoarse laugh. “Who’d ever think that the answer to that shit was  _ more DT? _ After a-all, I-- I can t-take it...” With that, she stabs herself in the arm with the syringe so fast that you flinch.

There is a brief pause; you raise a hand to…  _ eurgh. _ You raise a hand to wipe the stray bits of sludge off of your forehead, Sans tilts his head a little to the side, and Undyne begins to stand up straighter. Her entire form is solidifying again; before you know it, she’s back to normal. “I didn’t do anything to Sans,” you say, adding on to your original statement. Your expression immediately dispels any remaining doubt Undyne had, and she turns to him with a strange look on her face.

“Then that means… Papyrus is dead.”

“...yep.”

“And-- Prince Asriel killed him.”

“saw it with my own eyes,” Sans confirms, sounding rather resigned. “gave him a pretty bad scar for it, too, i’d say.” Undyne chuckles, at that.

“With the kind of shit you pulled back there... I wouldn't doubt it.” She glances back at you for a second, then sighs. “I guess getting your SOUL can wait, kid. First, we need to figure out what the hell’s up with the Prince.”

“...and who’s gonna be in charge when we break the barrier,” Sans adds.

“My name’s Frisk,” you say, after a moment, and Undyne nods.

“Well, alright. Frisk-- when you two get to Hotland, you can ask my girlfriend for help. Alph’s… uh… not really one for killing anyone. Hell, she’s probably been rooting for you the whole time,” she mutters, shaking her head. “She can definitely help. Me? I’m gonna go try and talk to the Prince, if I can. Maybe beat the shit out of him, if I can’t.” She gives you a shaky grin, before turning to leave the cave.

“oh, about that--”

“Exit collapsed? Done it before, no big deal,” she says, waving a hand. You giggle, before turning to enter Hotland. After a moment, Sans begins to follow, his slippers making virtually no noise on the dirt. A loud “NGAAAHH!” echoes out from the cave behind you, shortly followed by a loud  _ crash, _ and the two of you share a laugh before Sans pauses.

“hold up-- need to grab my extra pair of shoes. these slippers’ll probably melt if i go any further.” With that, he disappears behind his station for a minute. When he returns, he is indeed wearing something slightly more sensible. They actually match his coat, which is nice, considering  _ he _ doesn’t match the coat, himself.

Well. With that out of the way… welcome to Hotland, Frisk.

Though the feeling has no real meaning to either of us at the moment, the sight of Alphys’s lab on the horizon fills you with Determination.

* * *

Waterfall is very quiet these days.

You see not a single soul on your way through the caves; the only sounds that greet your ears are that of rushing water and whispering flowers. You know the way to Hotland from here, and so your legs move almost on their own. No interruptions.

You do see another Monster on the way, actually. Napstablook vanishes into their house the moment they see you, but you pay them no mind; they aren’t important. All that matters, right now, is finding  _ them. _ You are Determined to find them. Once you do…

Once you do, this will all finally be over.

You turn the corner and pause.

...that tune is familiar...

* * *

“Hey, can I try?”

“Asriel, I’m not finished…” They cut themself off with a sigh, before moving over. “Break a leg.” You laugh at that; some habits never died, and, for Chara, using Human phrases was one of them.

...you know it’s probably unfair to surprise them like this, but-- then again,  _ they’d _ also pranked you a couple weeks back, right? They’d blindfolded you in your sleep and left you to panic for a few minutes. Mom…  hadn’t been happy. Dad had found it kind of funny, at first, but faltered when faced with the legendary Mom Glare.

You’d asked her for help with learning the piano that same day, in hopes of surprising them the one way you knew how: one-upping them at something. She had been all for it, of course; she’d shown you how to play a couple of tunes  _ her _ mom had taught her when she was younger, and once you’d figured those out, she’d moved on to more official things. In fact, she’d actually taught you a couple Human songs!

Not that you could play them all that well. Humans - or, the ones from before the War, at least - liked their music  _ fast _ for some reason. Though some of them sounded better when you played slow…

You quickly slip into that same comfortable position on the chair that you’d been in nearly all night last night, and begin to play. The tune is something you thought up yourself, which you’re pretty proud of; it’s a simple melody, but you were sure it’d be good back then and you’re still sure now.

Chara seems to be kind of shocked at how good you are, actually. The tune’s fast-paced, but not too fast; quiet, but not too quiet. It’s perfect, and it’s simple, and…

...that expression doesn’t look good. They look like you might have shocked them a little too much, like how they initially reacted to when you gave them their locket. Why…? Oh, right! You aren’t even looking at the keys… huh. The song just kinda comes to you without much thinking, at this point. You know it by heart. That… might have taken them off-guard.

You repeat it for a few more seconds, then slow to a stop. Chara’s expression is unreadable, and you start to get a little nervous. “Um… do you like it?”

They don’t reply for a long while. “Chara?”

Then, a grin begins to spread across their face. “Azzy,” they say, quietly, “you’ve been holding out on me, haven’t you? That was _beautiful._ ”

You blush a little. You’d never admit it later, but you do. You had expected them to say lots of things, but not  _ that. _ “Really? G-gosh… um… thanks. D-do… do you want to try?” They nod, and you move over a little. Your hands guide them to the right keys, but even then it still takes practice. Before you know it, though, they’re playing it just like you did.

After a few repetitions, they look up at you, still grinning, and you can’t help but smile too. You aren’t even disappointed that it didn’t work out the way you’d hoped; you don’t see them smile like that often enough, and the sight makes your heart flutter. You don’t quite know what that feeling means, but you’re pretty sure it’s good.

When they’re done playing, you take them by the hand. “Wanna go show Mom?”

They nod, still smiling. “Sure… let’s surprise her.”

* * *

A single tear lands on the ground beneath you, in front of the statue.

There is a brief moment where you stand there, crouched down listening to the music, frozen solid… and then you summon your swords to your hands and  _ utterly obliterate _ the statue, going on long, long after the music stops, screaming in a mixture of fury and anguish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tagged this as "Onesided Chara/Asriel" for a reason. It isn't a very happy reason.
> 
> I have literally never written dialogue for Undyne before in my life, but I _think_ I pulled it off well enough. Hopefully? Eeh.
> 
> We're only one chapter away from the end of Act II, and I intend for it to end with a bang! I hope you're ready...
> 
> (Tra la la... Humans, Monsters... what else?)


	10. X - Act

You’ve never quite managed to figure out how or why the entire Underground changes temperatures so drastically when you just take three steps out of one area and into another. It’s not too bad when it's Waterfall and Hotland, considering Waterfall is a tad warm, itself, but the contrast between Snowdin and Hotland is ridiculous.

It’s also kind of terrifying, because apparently Mount Ebott is a dormant volcano. You’re well aware of what that means; it had actually erupted once, a year after you’d all gone to the Surface. The CORE had gone into meltdown - apparently, _someone_ forgot to turn it off, though you're not entirely sure who - and though Alphys thought she might be able to stop it, Sans stopped her. Or, rather, desperately begged her to not go near that thing at all.

You still don’t know why he cared so much; the look he had had on his face then was usually reserved for times where he was trying to protect _Papyrus,_ not _Alphys._

You’d Reset out of that mess immediately, of course. Sans had outright asked you to, which… wasn’t actually that surprising, all things considered. The eruption would have likely devastated a lot more than just Little Ebott (and not just physically, even).

Regardless, Hotland is the greatest example of how ridiculously dangerous the Underground really is: one wrong move and you could burn to death. One wrong jump, and you’ll get a face-full of lava for your troubles. You might be able to come back and try again, but holy _shit,_ death by magma _hurts._

Sans quickly notices that you’re kind of uncomfortable, and not because of the heat. “yeah, i don’t exactly  _ lava _ this place, either. i...  _ would _ say that alph is brave for working here, but she sleeps in the lab half of the time, so…” You nod; it’s kind of inevitable, considering how much of a workaholic she (the one you _knew,_ maybe?) is.

In fact, you’ve never actually seen Alphys’s house. It’s weird, but… not surprising.

It takes no time at all for the two of you to reach the Lab; RG02 is nowhere to be seen (presumably, he was the one sent off to find the SOUL you saw earlier), so that little issue is out of the way… but Sans stops you as you begin to walk inside. “actually, kid-- alph is probably harmless, yeah, but i have a feeling mettaton is not. it’d probably be best if i went in first, right? you go wait around for a few minutes. maybe…”

His eyes widen for a second, and then his grin goes wide too. “say, what about trying to talk to the riverperson? they’re right down that path--” he points towards the path to the river-- “and, uh, knowing them, they probably have some sort of idea about why we’re here. just a matter of getting them to stop singing, right?”

You nod, after a second. That _is_ pretty true; the Riverperson had always been kind of weird, even when I was alive. Sometimes, they seemed to know nothing at all (and not give a damn about that ignorance, either), but other times they seemed to know more than the Royal Scientist himself.

_Himself? So… Alphys wasn’t the sc--_

She isn’t _that_ old, Frisk. Most Monsters are as old as they look. That guy, though…  what was his name? It’s been so long, I don’t remember shit. Either way, he was around since before the Barrier was put up, knew more about Humans than _I_ did, and barely looked fifty years old, all things considered. It was _ridiculous._

And the Riverperson still managed to outdo him. I think they actually tried to talk me out of… _the plan…_ via singing, once.

_...really?_

Yup. It was subtle, but... I could tell. I don't know how they knew, but, well... that basically proves Sans's point. If anyone knows what’s going on, it’s them.

So you go. They’re just standing there, in the boat, idly humming a tune to themself. It’s a very simple tune, with maybe three or four notes overall, and it… doesn’t quite sound like their usual melodies. Weird.

They turn to stare at you as you step into the boat. “Hello, Human,” they greet, nonchalantly. “Where shall we go today?”

You bite your lip for a second, hesitating, before replying. “Uh.. I-- I was actually w-wondering if we c-could talk?”

There is a brief moment where the hooded figure goes eerily still. Even their humming seems to stutter to a halt. Then, after a moment, they reply, in a much softer voice, “You want to know why you are here, do you not?”

Well, that’s creepy as fuck. There is a brief pause, before you nod. “Yes, I d-do.”

“Then a simple joyride will suffice,” they continue, and the boat is off before you can even process what they just said.

* * *

“S-sorry, I don’t-- oh! U-um, hi, Sans! Wh-what are y-you…? Is th-this about the machine?”

He raises a single bony brow at the mention of the Machine, before shrugging. “nah. came to talk. you’ve still got those cameras up everywhere, right?”

Her eyes go wide as dinnerplates, before she nods, jerkily. “H-how--? Um, y-yeah, I d-do… t-then… w-wait, this is about the-- the Human, i-isn’t it?” He shrugs again.

“you caught me. i’m here to make sure you aren’t gonna kill them the moment they step in the door. i mean, even  _ papyrus _ tried to do that, and pap…” he scratches the back of his head, more for effect than anything. “uh, pap usually wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

She immediately shakes her head. Her entire body almost seems to shake with it. “N-no, of course not! M-my magic is more, uh, m-more suited for h-helpful stuff, anyway,” she mumbles. “B-but, um… M-Mettaton _will,_ I-- I think. I’m… not q-quite sure h-how they’ll get past him, t-to be honest-- when he was in his b-box form, well… _that_ was s-survivable, but…”

 _ so his e.x. form is standard now? great.  _ “...it gets worse, doesn’t it?” His eyelights go dim with the realization, and Alphys gets even more nervous.

“Actually, y-yeah, it-- it does,” she squeaks, after a second. “B-because, um-- I m-might have-- might have g-given him a b-bunch of really a-advanced weaponry? T-the Prince asked me to!”

Sans stares at her for a second, before sighing. “guess i’m not surprised. uh, to cover for the kid--” He holds out a phone, specifically his own. It’s extremely outdated, and he will not miss it. “upgrade this piece of junk for ‘em, please? i’ll hand it to them on their way in.”

After a brief pause, she reaches out with one shaking hand and takes the phone. “B-but-- wait, th-this is yours, isn’t it?”

He shrugs. “yeah. so? i hardly use the thing anyway.”

“...o-okay…” With that, she runs off in the opposite direction and out of sight.

* * *

“Tra la la,” the Riverperson sings. “Humans, Monsters… what else?”

The river is strangely calm today. Usually, it goes ridiculously fast, helping the Riverperson get to their destination at a ludicrous speed, but now… it’s almost as if they’re in control of it. “S-so… what happened before? What… what caused all of this?”

The Riverperson looks down at the waters for a moment. Then they look back up at you. “Every action has a consequence, child.”

Yeah, that’s helpful. “And… what was the action? In this case?”

They don’t reply for a long while. Then, they do something you’ve never seen before: they actually lift an arm out from under their robe and hold out a rock. After a moment, it rises up and hurls itself into the river. Their arm is… strange, pale blue and… _leathery._  It almost looks like it’s made out of the same fabric as their robe; it’s kind of unnerving. “One rock creates many ripples. Reflections and ripples do not mix well.”

“Then… is this a reflection of how things usually are, or something? And everything’s backwards because of it?” They shake their head.

“What do you see when you look into the water?”

You stare at the river. It’s too dark to make anything beneath the surface out clearly… but, wait-- “Myself. M-my reflection.”

Another rock falls into the water, and you flinch. The ripples distort your mirror image in strange ways, and for a moment you think you can almost see something _else_ in your place--

_thatsawonderfulideastillbelieveinyou thatsawonderfulideawhatkindofmonsterareyou **thatsawonderfulidea** _

You cringe and look away from the water.

“Ripples can distort many things. When they are in the water, they distort reflections, and it is only a temporary malady… but if they are in something entirely different, the consequences may be a little more extensive. A little more _ permanent. _ Humans and Monsters are all merely _reflections_ of their SOULs, after all.

“Your throwing arm is not very strong, is it?” They ask, holding out a rock. You take it, after a moment, and stare. “Throw it into the water, as far as you can,” they instruct.

You do so. It doesn’t land nearly as far away as the Riverperson’s rocks do. “You cannot reach the far wall, much like how you - and those like you - do not have the ability to change the past, merely the future. You can reach things that are near, but not things that are far. And that is how it should be.” They sigh. “Alas, sometimes...”

Your head snaps up to look at them and your eyes go wide. “H-how--?” The Riverperson lets out a low chuckle.

“Not all things are lost forever, child. Sometimes, all it takes to speak with the dead again is… a little reflection.”

...you're kidding me.

You glance back at the water, and, whether their attempt at a pun lightened the mood or not, your heart skips a beat when you see the surprise waiting for you in the reflection.

A third shape has risen up between you and the Riverperson, tall and dark and _so very, very_ **_wrong._ ** The being’s skeletal face seems to grin up at you from within the water, and you get the distinct impression that something is standing behind you.

“Tra la la,” the Riverperson sings. “Beware of the man who speaks in hands.”

* * *

Alphys gets done with her work soon enough, rushing back over with a much sleeker-looking phone in her hands. “...you just gave me a completely new phone, didn’t you?” Her face goes red.

“U-um… maybe? H-heh.”

He shrugs, his grin growing wider. “meh. i’d probably have done that, too; keep up the good work, alph.”

He turns to leave-- then pauses. “also. about the machine…”

She sighs. “L-look, Sans, I-- I’ve already t-told you. I just _f-found it,_ one day, down in th-the _other lab,_ and… I t-thought you’d like it. I-- I d-don’t know h-how it works, or-- or _w-who even made it--_ ”

He holds up a hand, and she immediately goes silent. “okay, that answers my questions. that said… i guess it’s a good thing i always knew who made it, huh? just kinda forgot for a while.” He turns to look at her from over his shoulder; her jaw’s dropped, and she’s staring at him in stunned silence.

“Y-you _do?_ ”

“yeah,” he replies with a wink. “actually, it turns out it was an old friend of mine…”

* * *

** WELL DONE, EVERYONE. IT WOULD APPEAR THAT THE EXTRACTOR IS WORKING AS PLANNED. **

_The staff aren’t surprised by Gaster’s distorted voice; he’d had that problem for years. Sans was actually present to watch the accident that caused it; it had been an attempt to give mute Monsters a way to speak._

_To be fair, it_ had _worked. It had just been completely incomprehensible, and Gaster had found that out the hard way. He’d taken up sign language for the first couple months after that, which was kind of surprising; up until he resurrected it, that kind of stuff had been a dead language with Monsters._

 _Now they called it something else, of course, in his honor. Much like they named his… other form of speech… after him. In fact, all of his ‘unique’ forms of communication, from his so-called ‘SOUL-Speech’ to_ his illegible handwriting, _had been labeled as being different versions of the exact same thing:_

_Wingdings._

_Gaster had thought the name was ridiculous at the time - the fact that it was his own name was completely ignored, of course, because no one ever_ called _him that, anyway - but it sounded better than anything else they could come up with, and so they had used it._

_He still relapsed into muteness here and there, often at the strangest times (such as right now). It had, thankfully, never really posed a problem - nearly all of the staff had learned both how to understand Wingdings and use the sign branch of the language, specifically because of that whole mess. It could, therefore, still be surprising, but not inconvenient. Not anymore._

_ “all thanks to you, alph,” Sans says, elbowing the Monster in question. Her face goes beet red at his words. _

_“W-what? N-no, it was-- it was all you guys. G-Gaster, and you, S-Sans, and… all you guys. N-not me.”_

**I THINK NOT, DOCTOR ALPHYS. AFTER ALL,** **_YOU_ ** ** ARE THE ONE WHO DESIGNED THE FIRST BLUEPRINTS. I MERELY EXPANDED ON THE DESIGN.**

_ “yeah, and you, your mom and g did most of the work, anyway, not me. i was always slacking off, wasn’t i?” Gaster’s gaze shifts towards him, turning slightly amused. _

**YOU HAVE AN EXCUSE, SANS. AND YOU** **_DID_ ** **DO SOME WORK, REGARDLESS.**

_ “true.” _

_After a moment, Gaster turns to address the crowd again._ **IT IS NOT LONG NOW BEFORE THE FIRST TESTS BEGIN, OF COURSE. AS MANY OF YOU ALREADY KNOW, SANS HAS VOLUNTEERED FOR INJECTIONS; HIS... HIS ENHANCED PHYSICALITY WILL LIKELY BE EXTREMELY USEFUL FOR DETERMINING THE SIDE EFFECTS OF SUCH PROCEDURES.** _His voice wavers briefly in the middle of his sentence; most of the onlookers don’t notice, but Sans hears it clear as day, and his eyes narrow slightly._ **UNTIL THEN, HOWEVER,** _he continues,_ **I SUGGEST WE GET THIS PARTY STARTED.**

_And so the party begins; scientists and their friends begin to drink and converse and trade theories, and so much more; Alphys gets lost in the crowd after a while, but Sans does not. Instead, he edges closer to Gaster here and there, until eventually they’re staring eachother in the face. “i know you’re worried about my safety during the experiments, g,” he begins, his usual grin dimming slightly. “but i need to do this, y’know? pap needs somebody who can keep him safe when you can’t.” _

_After a moment, he reluctantly nods._ **I KNOW.**

_Sans’s smile returns to his face. “i promise i won’t get myself killed,” he says, holding out a hand. _

**AND I PROMISE I WON’T KILL YOU.** _Gaster_ fully expects _the whoopee cushion. That does not keep him from getting slightly uncomfortable when the entire crowd turns to stare at them, though._ **SANS, YOU ARE AN IDIOT SOMETIMES,** _he says, much louder, and they all laugh, before turning back around to resume their previous activities._

_ “not always, though. right?” Gaster nods, and then resumes speaking in a low tone. _

**YES... PAPYRUS MAY SAY OTHERWISE, BUT YOU HAVE BEEN A MASSIVE HELP THESE PAST FEW YEARS.** _There is a brief pause, before he continues, sounding much, much more somber._

** I’M PROUD OF YOU. I’M PROUD TO HAVE YOU AS MY ASSISTANT, AS MY FRIEND... AND AS MY SON. **

_Sans seems to be rather stunned by those words; his eyes go wide, and any responses he had planned die in his throat. After a moment, he says “that’s all i ever wanted to hear.” _

_As they watch, a drunk Alphys begins to sing, and they both cringe in unison. “man, that’s actually kind of painful.” _

**YES, IT IS,** _Gaster agrees, a thoughtful look on his face. After a moment, he grins._ **HER SINGING LESSONS MUST NOT BE COMPLETE YET. EARLY** ** _ALPHYS_** **, PERHAPS?**

 _Sans stares at him for a second, then bursts out laughing. “th-- that was  _ gastly, _” he chokes out. _

**REALLY? A SHAME... I AM** **_WINGING_ ** **IT, AFTER ALL.**

_ “...heh.” There is a brief pause, as the two of them stare out at the party in front of them. “i love you, dad. never change.” _

**...I LOVE YOU TOO, SON. **

* * *

The shape in the river holds out a bony hand, and the Riverperson holds out one last rock. There are holes in the figure’s palms, you dimly note. You don’t know why that matters. You just know they’re there.

Before your very eyes, the rock begins to float in the air. In the reflection, the shape’s distorted phalanges are wrapped around it. There is a brief pause… and then it _throws_ the rock, as hard as it can.

It flies straight into the far wall, slams into it, then falls into the water. Like always, ripples flow out from that point-- and when they pass over the shape, it vanishes.

“Everything has a consequence,” the Riverperson intones, as the boat draws closer to the Hotland pier. “Soon, you two are going to learn that the hard way. Good luck; you will need it.”

...the hell does that mean? And, wait, _wh--_

You step off the boat, still staring at them in shock. All they say, however, is a simple “Take care.” Nothing to elaborate on what the hell that metaphor meant, who the shape in the water was, or how they know fucking everything.

Sans is going to be very disappointed.

* * *

The guards have found another SOUL. You want to focus on that, you truly do, but something about the Human and their companion intrigues you in a way that you can’t quite put your finger on. Or… perhaps it has to do with how many secrets they seem to be hiding. You don’t know how Sans knows about _the Plan._ You don’t know if the Human knows, too, and you don’t know why they look so similar to--

This is your last test, isn’t it? It’s pure coincidence, perhaps, but that changes nothing; it’s still your last challenge. You have to kill them. You _must._ You have to prove to yourself that you’re worthy of this, that you can let go of _everything._ Then you can finish this. We _need_ six more SOULs… but we _want_ **_seven._**

If a lone SOUL gives you this much power, eight will make you a **_god._ **

And then your job will be done.

Undyne is waiting for you when you reach the entrance to Hotland, a spear in hand and power radiating off her in waves. “You killed Papyrus,” she says. It isn’t a question.

“I did.”

“Why?” She’s surprisingly calm; presumably, she has known for a while now. You scowl; the Human is turning the entire Underground against you, aren’t they? “I thought you two were _friends._ ”

“He let the Human go. He betrayed me. You know how I feel about... _traitors._ ” She isn’t intimidated by you. How quaint. “You’ve talked to them, haven’t you? You’ve let them go. You let them get to Hotland.”

She shrugs. “Yeah, I did. Got a problem with that?”

You chuckle a little. It sounds more like a growl. “You’re acting like our roles have been reversed, like you're _the one in control,_ not a simple _subordinate._ First you betray me like Papyrus did, and now you do  _this?_ Ha…” There is a brief pause, and then you tilt your head ever so slightly. “I _have_ always wanted to see how powerful you really are, you know. It’s a shame that I have to try to kill you to find out.”

Your swords appear in your hands immediately, crackling with energy, and Undyne scoffs. “Yeah, right! Whether you’ve got a Human SOUL or not, I can still kick your ass!” You grin; there’s the Undyne you remember...

* * *

“So you’re that punk who absorbed a Human SOUL a few years back?” 

You glance up from the book in your hands, an incredulous look in your eyes. The Monster standing before you is young, likely in her teens, and has one eye covered by an eyepatch. Interesting. “I am. Why do you ask?” 

She scoffs. “They say you’re the most powerful guy in the Underground. Well, I want to put that to the test!” A spear forms in her hand, and you raise an eyebrow. 

“...huh. I recognize the ‘craftmanship’ of that spear. Gerson’s taught you?” She nods. 

“Hell, yeah! He’s been around _way_ longer than _you,_ and he knows the same kind of tricks that your dad uses!” That comment has you laughing, outright; the book slips from your grasp and falls to the ground, vanishing into the grass, but neither of you seem to notice. After a few more moments, the girl snaps. “STOP LAUGHING!” 

It makes you laugh harder. After a while, though, you stop. “S-sorry-- no, really! I’m sorry! It’s just... heh. It’s just, you _don’t_ know ‘the same tricks’ as my dad. If you tried to use them, the strain would make you Fall Down.” You hold out a hand, and a sword materializes in your grasp, with a loud noise accompanying it. It’s a glowing blood-red-- the color of Determination. The girl seems rather shocked by its appearance, taking a step back, and you grin. “This thing? Boss Monsters only.” 

You hold out your other hand, and the other sword appears in an identical fashion. “They can cut through anything, I’ve been told. Not that I’d hit you with it, or anything, but I rather doubt that anything Gerson could teach you to summon can do that.” 

She recovers from her shock relatively quickly, stepping forward with a familiar look in her eyes. You raise an eyebrow at the sight. “So? I bet I can beat you in a straight fight _anyway!_ ” 

You hadn’t planned on this. She seems a bit too… _Determined…_ to drop it, though, so you might as well. “Alright. You want a fight?” You stand up. “I can give you a fight.” 

The girl-- Undyne, apparently - is _genuinely kind of pathetic._ But Gerson’s taught her well, all things considered; she lasts more than a few seconds, and she goes longer and longer with every rematch. It’s quite the workout, all things considered (and draws a large crowd, on top of that; you can see Asgore and Toriel watching, even!). 

Things reach a head when Undyne eventually actually _knocks one of the swords out of your hand._ It flickers and fades before it even hits the ground; you’d stare a little, but your attention is entirely focused on her attacks. Between the thrown spears and her own swings, you can’t quite keep up with only a single sword; eventually, one of them grazes your arm. The crowd immediately bursts into mumbled accusations and whispered theories at the sight, and you know exactly why before you’ve even looked at the injury. 

The cut is bleeding. It’s not Dust, either-- it’s _real, true blood,_ as red as your sword and as wet as water... it’s as if you were Human. The sight doesn’t surprise you, or your parents, but the rest of the Underground had not known that this happened before now. You aren’t sure if that’s good or bad. 

Undyne hadn’t been aware either, apparently, as she completely loses her composure at the sight and you disarm her with ease. “Not bad, Not bad at all. But I still win.” 

There is a brief silence, before Undyne gestures at your arm. “What the hell is that stuff?!” You glance down at the cut - still bleeding, though it is also healing rapidly - and laugh. 

“This? Humans call it ‘blood.’ Turns out absorbing a Human SOUL has a few more effects than just a power boost; my body’s a bit more physical, overall. If you’re surprised, then you should have seen _my_ reaction. Or-- hell, Mom nearly fainted at the sight!” You pause, then add “Luckily, she didn’t, or I’m pretty sure I’d be Dust by now.” Your attempt at a joke elicits no laughs. Oh, well. 

Undyne tilts her head a little. “...you really did absorb one of those things, didn’t you? It was... that kid, Chara, wasn’t it?” 

You nod, after a moment, a grim smile on your face. “It wasn’t the best of ideas, but... well, here we are.” 

The crowd goes quiet, then disperses. “What’s up with the swords, anyway?” She asks, after a second. “You said if I tried to make them, they’d make me Fall Down.” You hold up your sword for her to see. 

“Boss Monsters naturally generate bits of Determination in their SOULs. Now, that doesn’t really sound like it should do much, but it _has_ allowed them to do plenty of things regular Monsters can’t. These swords? Made of the stuff. No, really.” You quickly launch into an explanation of the various differences between Boss Monsters and regular Monsters; Undyne doesn’t seem to be much for science (and, honestly, neither are you) but she seems incredibly intrigued anyway. 

“What does absorbing a Human SOUL do, then? Does it just boost all that other stuff, or…?” 

You shrug and shake your head. “I haven’t seen much else yet,” you lie. “I had hoped I could… I don’t know, maybe have Chara floating around in my head or something? But… that didn’t happen.” You pass off your smug grin as a sad one easily enough, and she doesn’t ask any more questions on the matter. 

...

Good deflection, Asriel.

* * *

She points her spear at you, and countless others appear in the air, bathing the entire area in a cyan light. Her eye begins to glow, too; it reminds you of how Sans’s did, when he fought you. Interesting...

“It’s been a long time since the last time we fought, and I’ve gotten _WAY_ stronger since then! I can take you!” She might not be wrong, for all you know; she might be able to put up a challenge. But… she can’t win.

You give her a smug smirk. You can’t help it. “Who said I would hold back this time?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That might not have been the 'bang' you expected. I mean, hey, we know a few important(?) things now, we got some foreshadowing, and we also have... another bloody cliffhanger.
> 
> Uh... heh?
> 
> If you're disappointed, that's okay. I kinda might have rushed this a bit, anyway, for reasons that will be explained in a second. If you want to scroll up and click that 'Disable Author Style' button. that's okay, too; Gaster's dialogue is probably almost exactly what you expect it to be, but I _did_ sneak in a few puns, so... eh.
> 
> That said, about the rushing thing; I'm going to go on hiatus for a little while. I'm not sure how long, honestly, but if I have any luck at all, I _will_ have something out by Christmas, so... yeah. I'm just going to be kind of busy soon; I hope you guys don't mind.
> 
> Trust me: when it gets here, the next act (titled "LOVE") is going to be a wild ride, if only because _Mettaton!_
> 
> (to give you some sort of idea as to what to expect, here's a sneak peek at the cover art: http://i.imgur.com/YeZ3ko9.png )
> 
> So... yeah. Just-- be patient, stay Determined and all that sort of stuff, and I'm going to go take a nice, long, union-regulated break. See you later, guys!


End file.
